Tax

It surprising just how quickly commentators jumped from the Panama Papers to assumptions about New Zealand’s offshore trusts regime.

If there is a housing shortage at the root of our affordability crisis, the best response is to increase housing supply.

Whether Juncker’s political career will come to an abrupt end now depends entirely on whether he can sufficiently distance himself from the Lux Leaks revelations. Or indeed, whether those who elected him to his new office will award him a grace period regardless.

Plans to increase the top rate of income tax may be good populist policy – they may even win elections. But they would be a sure disaster for the New Zealand economy by robbing us of one of our key competitive advantages over Australia.

Australia is on a slippery slope of becoming more like European countries. If the government continues to spend big and finance it through deficits, the future tax burden may have to rise substantially to pay for a growing debt burden.

Ken Henry has shown that he is no longer willing to confine himself to the role of a senior public servant. For this reason, it would be better for him seek a new career and run for a political office instead.

Tax simplification may not be a political cracker; however, it is neither GST-free nor painless. But in order to re-establish legal certainty and reduce the amount of red-tape involved, it is worth every effort.

Happy Tax Freedom Day! A tax is “a compulsory exaction of money by a public authority for public purposes, enforceable by law, and is not a payment for services rendered”. At least that is the way the High Court defined it way back in 1938. To put it simply: a tax is something you must pay to the government; what you get in return is another matter.