Labour govt 2020-23

[Balance]

I have yet to meet a single person who ever paid Muldoon’s 66% tax rate. Anyone earning income in that tax bracket had a multitude of ways to not only reduce their tax but to not pay tax at all by using a tax specialist.

There were tax avoidance schemes, tax loopholes and tax incentives back in those days for Africa! Only a mug paid much by way of tax because tax accountants & lawyers put together tax minimisation schemes in farming, movies, new industries, forestry, airplanes, heavy machineries and just about anything possible. Then there were double dip tax deductions, preference shares to transfer tax losses from one entity to another and the list just went on and on.

Took Roger Douglas and Lange’s government to completely revamp the tax system and introduced GST.

[peetter]

There's a nice example of this from couple years ago in France. They tried 75% tax, they failed. There's a point people will just say it's enough and leave.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rcent-supertax

[Logen Ninefingers]

Inequality in NZ and other western democracies has been driven by the loopy policies of central banks since the GFC. Interest rates have been slashed to the bone and kept there, plus the ‘Quantitative Easing’ which started in the US and then spread everywhere. Has meant that asset owners have become much richer, and everyone else is going backwards due to the inflation that has inevitably emerged and is now gathering pace.

[fungus pudding]

I have yet to meet a single person who ever paid Muldoon’s 66% tax rate. Anyone earning income in that tax bracket had a multitude of ways to not only reduce their tax but to not pay tax at all by using a tax specialist.

There were tax avoidance schemes, tax loopholes and tax incentives back in those days for Africa! Only a mug paid much by way of tax because tax accountants & lawyers put together tax minimisation schemes in farming, movies, new industries, forestry, airplanes, heavy machineries and just about anything possible. Then there were double dip tax deductions, preference shares to transfer tax losses from one entity to another and the list just went on and on.

Took Roger Douglas and Lange’s government to completely revamp the tax system and introduced GST.

I know someone very well who paid it. Believe me.

[fungus pudding]

There's a nice example of this from couple years ago in France. They tried 75% tax, they failed. There's a point people will just say it's enough and leave.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...rcent-supertax

Arthur Laffer explained it well and demonstrated it with 'The Laffer curve'. It applies to much more than just taxes. e.g manufactured goods, services etc.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laffercurve.asp


(Arthur Laffer acknowledges that he did not come up with the idea for his namesake curve on his own. Indeed, Ibn Khaldun, a 14th-century Muslim philosopher, wrote in his work The Muqaddimah: "It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments.")

[777]

http://keithrankin.co.nz/Rankin_Muld...rence_2014.pdf

Tables at end show the marginal rates.

[Balance]

I know someone very well who paid it. Believe me.

That someone should have used a good tax accountant.

Like I wrote, I have yet to meet one single individual who ever paid the 66%. I have seen many individuals (hundreds) however who earned mega bucks during that era and paid zero or bigger all tax.

And it was easy as - for example, high income individuals bought into kiwifruit syndicates which developed land into orchards. All the development expenses were tax deductible but the gains from selling the syndicate units were tax free. Magic.

Then there were the financing of plant (especially airplanes) where the same high depreciation was claimed in two countries due to a loophole in tax treaty agreements. Magic!

[fungus pudding]

That someone should have used a good tax accountant.

Like I wrote, I have yet to meet one single individual who ever paid the 66%. I have seen plenty however who earned mega bucks during that era and paid zero tax.

And it was easy as - for example, high income individuals bought into kiwifruit syndicates which developed land into orchards. All the development expenses were tax deductible but the gains from selling the syndicate units were tax free. Magic.

Not as easy as it sounds with an individual who at the time was heavily committed, both time and dollar wise. He doesn't like to use cliches, and certainly doesn't often mix them, but he did tell me he was up to his eyeballs with too much on his plate.

[Bjauck]

This I know, but that's actually more than 30 years so i wasn't sure if Bjauck is really ranting about something even more than 30 years ago and saying it's 30 years of tax cuts.

Fair enough, it was a bit of a Labour Day blunderbuss of a rant

The gaps between various groups and the advantaged and disadvantaged in NZ has grown wider over recent decades, and wider still during Covid for a mixture of reasons, some of which include the the presence (and absence) of various types of taxes. As a result It seems fanciful to expect all sectors of society to be willing, or perhaps even be able, to pull together in the same way, and adhere to the official covid response.

[fungus pudding]

Fair enough, it was a bit of a Labour Day blunderbuss of a rant

The gaps between various groups and the advantaged and disadvantaged in NZ has grown wider over recent decades, and wider still during Covid for a mixture of reasons, some of which include the the presence (and absence) of various types of taxes. As a result It seems fanciful to expect all sectors of society to be willing, or perhaps even be able, to pull together in the same way, and adhere to the official covid response.

By 'advantaged and disadvantaged' are you meaning the well off and the struggling? Or are you thinking of advantages and disadvantages other than financial?