National Voter Still ?

[Bluekiwi]

Tell John & Bill if you will still vote National next election.

[email protected]
[email protected]

[AMR]

What is Labour's policy? Worse or better?

[drelly]

Give them a break, they haven't even made any decisions yet!

[Bluekiwi]

Give them a break, they haven't even made any decisions yet!

Exactly my reason to have a go at them now.

It is patently obvious - well to my eyes - they are happily sitting on the fence, establishing what they think they can get away with, and still win the next election.

[Cadmium]

What is Labour's policy? Worse or better?

Good question AMR.

Through my biased eye, I think Labour's policy on tax has demonstrably been: Allow thousands of NZders over the years, to have their incomes creep into the top brackets, hand a fraction back to some in the form of benefits (like "Working for Families"), and hope that most people will believe they are in some sort of "Robin Hood Paradise".

I expect I will be happy to trade additional tax in some areas for reduced personal income tax, but like everyone else I am watching with great interest.

I would not like to be up to my eyeballs in negatively geared property right now, but since when was that a good idea anyway?

[CJ]

What is Labour's policy? Worse or better?

or Acts

I think I read Labour supported the recommendations though i wouldn't have thought they liked the GST idea??

[drelly]

Bluekiwi... I doubt they're very happy about it but yes, they're gauging public opinion for sure.

[WBuffett]

Labour would not have allowed the globar recession to happen on their watch like National did, shame on John Key and Bill English.

[mortgage broker]

We pay a lot of company, trust and income tax because we, like Australia do not have a social security tax like most OECD nations. Loading up more tax on individuals is likely to piss them of when they are already getting ripped of compared to other OECD nations.

[Halfway To Paradise]

I put this question up a while ago and it got a bit lost. I have only been in NZ a few years. The tax year starts April the budget is May, historically have budgets in NZ had retrospective changes or as I believe if there are any changes will they be from April 2011.

Thank
Rob

[Mark_B]

Still a national voter?

Until such time as they peave me or become (as every government does in time) bereft of new policy ideas.

Oh, and until such time as a credible alternative emerges - Phil Goff has a way to go yet in that respect imo.

[foss]

Interesting dialogue here.

I totally agree with bluekiwi now is the time to influence. Once they announce a decisions its too late. The chance of change is minute. What Labour thinks is largely irrelevant because they probably won't change it. We are dealing with the here and now.

To answer the question though labour was in favour of a capital gain tax (on sale). Some investors don't like this but reality is is fair to some extent and more improtantly you have the cashflow to pay. Whereas most other options kill cashflow.

Other reality long way down track is that they lower taxes, broaden the tax system and at some point someone will come along and increase personal taxes again so they can pay for increasing healthcare (which won't go away).

Anyway back on point, to answer "Half way to Paradise" (and Oz beginning to look very appealing), they will not be able to implement all changes at once and basically said so. Most of the suggestions (to increase and broaden) are actually very easy to change quickly.
- Depreciation rates could be changed within a month or so (may be 3mths tops)
- Ring fencing would require a modification to their systems but the figures are all separate now and already isolated so probably 3-6 months. Would need to coincide to a tax year though (1 April ??).
- Land tax being new would take a bit to sort out & coordinate thru councils. Probably 6 mths? No need to wait for a tax year change.
- RFRM - risk free rate of return is complex to implement and needs to conicide with a tax year. But they slum-dumped the similar FDR (overseas tax change) quickly to get it in and avoid complaining.
- GST will take a little longer because it's so widespread and take time for everyone to change. 6 mths probably, but its not tied to a tax year.
- Reductions to tax rates or changes to thresholds typically implement around the start of a tax year but I think has been situations where changed part way thru a year.

They don't necessarily have to wait until May though. If they make up their mind what they want to do , 1 April bound changes in particular might occur this year ahead of the May budget annoucement. Lets face it they already have their favourites I think.

[foss]

As I have suggested many times on this forum. Work out what is likely to be the impact on you of the options. What is the worse case option and the best. Then start promoting the best, because reality is you're going to get hit with something, better it be the least than the worst.

The way things are looking at least 2 taxes could hit property investors. double whammy is defintely bad

Tax reductions likely won't offset the pain of the other taxes hitting investors. The only exception is land tax (the least impact I reckon). I don't think land tax will get in though. If it does it will accompany either depreciation reduction or RFRM.

[k1w1]

The ACC chgs to motorcyclists saw me drop several pegs in the "National voter" category, that's for sure.

[CJ]

The tax year starts April the budget is May, historically have budgets in NZ had retrospective changes or as I believe if there are any changes will they be from April 2011.

Changes are almost never retrospective. Normally retrospective changes are only made in cases of extreme tax avoidance or where there was an unintended change (ie. the legislation didn't do what it was meant to do).

Sometimes however, they do announce a change that will take effect from the date of the announcement with the legislation being retrospective to that date. This again is to stop people doing something to take advantage of the old legislation or arbitrage the change.

Items like GST could be effective from any GST period.
Income tax changes could be made part year (like the last reduction)
Changes to deprecation or the calculation method would have to be from the start of an income year so most likely to start from 1/4/11 for taxpayers with standard balance dates.