Governments' broad tax objectives applauded

Most New Zealanders will agree with the government’s broad objective to reduce income taxes and plug holes in the tax base in respect of over investing in residential property, the Employers & Manufacturers Association (Northern).

“We applaud the goal of encouraging people to earn more by taxing their incomes less,” said Alasdair Thompson, EMA’s chief executive.

“Business will welcome tax changes that encourage earning more income, saving and productive investment.

“Taxing wages and salaries, and profits from companies’ investments should be reduced and most New Zealanders will agree with that.

“Income retained in trusts should be treated equally with personal income for tax purposes.

“There is plenty of scope to plug holes in the income tax base to ensure people are not overtaxed and trusts are not under taxed, and to prevent people from offsetting losses on property investments against their personal incomes.

“Getting rid of the ways where high income people can pay less tax is good.

“These moves will go a long way to allow for reductions to income tax across the board.

“Should more tax be required, further tax changes that favour investment over consumption, for instance by increasing GST to 15 per cent, are also a positive signal.”