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Thursday, February 24, 2005

Message to Michael (or, re-electing Labour in 2005, part II) 

Dear Hon. Dr. Michael Cullen,

Might I propose a tax cut? A tax cut that benefits all New Zealanders, but benefits those on lowest incomes the most? If you don't act now, you might not have the opportunity to do so in the future. And while I'd highly recommend a cut in GST (to 10%), in the interim I'd refer you to the balanced budget proposed by the Canadian government today. Here's what they achieved:

[T]he budget raises the tax-emption limit — basically the amount Canadians can earn before they start paying taxes — to $10,000 by 2009. For the 2004 taxation year, the limit stood at $8,150.

The increase is seen largely as a benefit to low-and-medium income families, although all Canadians benefit because all taxpayers claim the basic personal amount. In Wednesday's budget, Ottawa estimated that the proposed change would remove about 860,000 low-income earners from the tax rolls, including about 240,000 seniors.

You see, Michael, doing something similar in New Zealand (say, making the first $5000 tax free, or lowering the rate for the first tax bracket by a couple of percent) would benefit all New Zealanders, offer the most to those who currently have the least, earn you praise from the media, and get Don Brash and that motley collection of "talentless born-to-rule tories, inbred rural consevatives, panty-sniffing monarchists, capitalists without a conscience, and 'mother knows best' paternalists" (to quote NRT) off your case for a while.

Sincerely etc,
dc_red

p.s. get on with it.

Comments:
I agree.

How can they complain about NZers not saving for their retirement when wages are stagnating, employers are laughing all the way to the bank as they pull the finger at all their pauper staff, and a quarter of NZers living in Auckland where you have to rob a bank to put a deposit on a house???

If they provided tax cuts for the poorest then maybe folks would actually be even more motivated to get a ruddy job and put a bit of the cash away.

I qualify for a student allowance this year but if my wife earnt a few hundred bucks the extra amount we would get would mean that she would be earning about 2 dollars an hour over 20 hours.

Why would ya bother?

How many times can you say 'would' in one comment?
 
To your comment that "wages are stagnating, employers and laughing all the way to the bank" I would add that those on very low incomes still see the government take off with 20c of every dollar they earn, and that's before they go out and get hit with GST.
 

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