The Daily Blog Open Mic – 1st August 2025

National had a secret and didn’t want people to know till they had tied a knot in the tube along which wage negotiations were oozing. Someone had to feel the cuts and it wasn’t going to be the pollies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/568685/project-10-how-the-government-kept-the-pay-equity-law-change-secret
*****
and New Zealand Politics
Accountants call for capital gains tax
9:30 am today – Aug.1/25
Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/568640/accountants-call-for-capital-gains-tax
A group representing more than 3000 accountants in New Zealand has called for a rethink of the tax system, including the introduction of a capital gains tax.
CPA Australia has made a submission in response to Inland Revenue’s long-term insights briefing, which warned that tax would need to increase in the coming years.
The organisation agreed with Inland Revenue on many of the pressures on the New Zealand system, including an ageing population that would mean fewer working taxpayers, and higher pension and healthcare costs.
Productivity [lah,lah] was also a problem, along with the cost of living and AI potentially changing how people worked.

It said the country’s tax base was narrow with a heavy reliance on income tax and GST, which make up the bulk of the tax take.

It said the absence of a capital gains tax put pressure on the other taxes.
It suggested adding a CGT, land tax and even GST changes to help recalibrate the tax mix, as well as indexing tax brackets to inflation so that people’s tax bills did not increase over time when their income was only keeping pace with inflation.
CPA said it was also worth considering making KiwiSaver compulsory, means-testing super and providing more tax incentives for retirement savings, such as a model in which contributions and returns were not taxed.

The chair of CPA’s New Zealand Tax Committee, Angus Ogilvie said unless there were significant changes to the way superannuation was set up, there were clear issues around a long-term structural deficit….
He said New Zealand had long been described as a “broad-based low rate tax system”.
For many years it was just that. The base was fairly comprehensive and the rates were relatively low. But now the top personal tax rate has gone to 39 percent, I don’t think anyone could argue that is low. The company tax rate is one of the highest in the OECD. We argue that we aren’t that low rate, nor are we broad-based.
“With a couple of exceptions, we don’t tax capital gains in New Zealand, that’s quite unusual in the OECD context. Pretty much every OECD country has some for of CGT, Australia certainly does but New Zealand does not. If we want to broaden that base, we need to consider a CGT.”
He said CPA was suggesting it should apply to assets purchased from a certain date, so that it was not retrospective…

Universal provision of super for everyone over the age of 65 is very expensive. It’s not means tested in any way – in Australia it is.”
He said something would need to be done. “I don’t think there’s anyone who seriously believes going to get on top of structural deficit issue unless the economy grows and that doesn’t seem to be happening spontaneously so what other options have we got?”

He said putting GST up was another option, but it would hit lower-income earners hard because they spent a greater proportion of what they warned. [sic- earned?/Freudian slip!] That could require an adjustment to welfare settings.
CPA was not in favour of a wealth tax because it could prompt people to shift wealth to other countries without such a tax…
(So why did Graeme watsisname fart, take his millions/billion to Oz? How does that work out then?)
*****
and
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/545634/who-is-actually-paying-the-tax-in-nz-ask-susan
Mar.22/25
The biggest chunk of tax comes from individuals paying income tax – in the 2024 financial year, that was 51 percent of tax revenues. That was followed by GST, which was 25 percent of revenue, corporate tax at 16 percent and “other” at 8 percent.
When it was releasing its report, IRD said the tax take hit $115.4 billion in the 2024 year, the highest level ever.
But it says with economic conditions being tough, more customers have struggled to pay their tax and there has been notable growth in overdue tax debt…
It is interesting that within that individual tax contribution, the majority is paid by higher-earning individuals. In the 2020 tax year, 24 percent was from the 3 percent of people earning more than $150,001 a year.
In 2022, the NZ initiative noted that the Working for Families system meant a family with two kids earning about $60,000 a year would get as many credits as they paid in tax, so they effectively would pay no tax.

Good financial advice from someone who can talk about the present being part of a ‘normal’ economic wave. …Sam Stubbs, who is the founder of Simplicity…
He said it would be worth you using a fund selector tool – Simplicity has one, or you could use Sorted’s – to check what sort of fund you should be in…
If you desperately need your money right now you desperately need your money, it doesn’t matter where financial markets are, you need cash. If you ever get into that circumstance you should probably be in a lower risk fund. Otherwise stick to your guns, do not get emotional about this. This is the normal course of events. If markets always went up everyone would sell their houses and put money into financial markets. They don’t. They go up and down … Over the long term, time is your friend.”
The disruption won’t last forever and as, Stubbs says, it’s only a paper loss at the moment…

This was in March this year. How anyone can talk reassuringly about normality I don’t know – myopia? It is no help to spell out the worst, (don’t frighten the horses), but caution and ensuring that everything is watertight would be a good way to invest to your best advantage I would think. Long term – when everything we buy is made to last short term, and some not at all, like the Natifact coalition (like an artifact but badly designed and without grace)? And telling whoppers is okay because no-one notices anyway – they are looking at something else on their devices.

2 COMMENTS

Greywarbler August 1, 2025 At 4:10 pm

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/indonz/568728/air-nz-s-ceo-appointment-stirs-racist-backlash
Just step back for a moment and think. ‘A torrent of abuse’ is emotional language, as much as responses may have been. It is no doubt reaction to another case of New Zealand top jobs going to foreigners from overseas. We in a small country, have few top jobs, India has many. Fewer of ours are going to Kiwis, and even basic jobs also.
How are we going to support ourselves if our administrators have financial incentives to look past our own people? There are sure to be more suitable people overseas than in NZ, but let us look amongst our own as first and second option.

Indians have strong nationalistic ideas now, and fought to gain their rights from the British, similar to the efforts of Maori now, but in time pakeha will also have to join, Will we find another Ghandi to withstand the punitive forces that will array in future against us?
Greywarbler August 1, 2025 At 9:27 pm

National had a secret and didn’t want people to know till they had tied a knot in the tube along which wage negotiations were oozing. Someone had to feel the cuts and it wasn’t going to be the pollies.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/568685/project-10-how-the-government-kept-the-pay-equity-law-change-secret
*****
and New Zealand Politics
Accountants call for capital gains tax
9:30 am today – Aug.1/25
Susan Edmunds, Money Correspondent susan.edmunds@rnz.co.nz
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/568640/accountants-call-for-capital-gains-tax
A group representing more than 3000 accountants in New Zealand has called for a rethink of the tax system, including the introduction of a capital gains tax.
CPA Australia has made a submission in response to Inland Revenue’s long-term insights briefing, which warned that tax would need to increase in the coming years.
The organisation agreed with Inland Revenue on many of the pressures on the New Zealand system, including an ageing population that would mean fewer working taxpayers, and higher pension and healthcare costs.
Productivity [lah,lah] was also a problem, along with the cost of living and AI potentially changing how people worked.

It said the country’s tax base was narrow with a heavy reliance on income tax and GST, which make up the bulk of the tax take.

It said the absence of a capital gains tax put pressure on the other taxes.
It suggested adding a CGT, land tax and even GST changes to help recalibrate the tax mix, as well as indexing tax brackets to inflation so that people’s tax bills did not increase over time when their income was only keeping pace with inflation.
CPA said it was also worth considering making KiwiSaver compulsory, means-testing super and providing more tax incentives for retirement savings, such as a model in which contributions and returns were not taxed.

The chair of CPA’s New Zealand Tax Committee, Angus Ogilvie said unless there were significant changes to the way superannuation was set up, there were clear issues around a long-term structural deficit….
He said New Zealand had long been described as a “broad-based low rate tax system”.
For many years it was just that. The base was fairly comprehensive and the rates were relatively low. But now the top personal tax rate has gone to 39 percent, I don’t think anyone could argue that is low. The company tax rate is one of the highest in the OECD. We argue that we aren’t that low rate, nor are we broad-based.
“With a couple of exceptions, we don’t tax capital gains in New Zealand, that’s quite unusual in the OECD context. Pretty much every OECD country has some for of CGT, Australia certainly does but New Zealand does not. If we want to broaden that base, we need to consider a CGT.”
He said CPA was suggesting it should apply to assets purchased from a certain date, so that it was not retrospective…

Universal provision of super for everyone over the age of 65 is very expensive. It’s not means tested in any way – in Australia it is.”
He said something would need to be done. “I don’t think there’s anyone who seriously believes going to get on top of structural deficit issue unless the economy grows and that doesn’t seem to be happening spontaneously so what other options have we got?”

He said putting GST up was another option, but it would hit lower-income earners hard because they spent a greater proportion of what they warned. [sic- earned?/Freudian slip!] That could require an adjustment to welfare settings.
CPA was not in favour of a wealth tax because it could prompt people to shift wealth to other countries without such a tax…
(So why did Graeme watsisname fart, take his millions/billion to Oz? How does that work out then?)
*****
and
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/545634/who-is-actually-paying-the-tax-in-nz-ask-susan
Mar.22/25
The biggest chunk of tax comes from individuals paying income tax – in the 2024 financial year, that was 51 percent of tax revenues. That was followed by GST, which was 25 percent of revenue, corporate tax at 16 percent and “other” at 8 percent.
When it was releasing its report, IRD said the tax take hit $115.4 billion in the 2024 year, the highest level ever.
But it says with economic conditions being tough, more customers have struggled to pay their tax and there has been notable growth in overdue tax debt…
It is interesting that within that individual tax contribution, the majority is paid by higher-earning individuals. In the 2020 tax year, 24 percent was from the 3 percent of people earning more than $150,001 a year.
In 2022, the NZ initiative noted that the Working for Families system meant a family with two kids earning about $60,000 a year would get as many credits as they paid in tax, so they effectively would pay no tax.

Good financial advice from someone who can talk about the present being part of a ‘normal’ economic wave. …Sam Stubbs, who is the founder of Simplicity…
He said it would be worth you using a fund selector tool – Simplicity has one, or you could use Sorted’s – to check what sort of fund you should be in…
If you desperately need your money right now you desperately need your money, it doesn’t matter where financial markets are, you need cash. If you ever get into that circumstance you should probably be in a lower risk fund. Otherwise stick to your guns, do not get emotional about this. This is the normal course of events. If markets always went up everyone would sell their houses and put money into financial markets. They don’t. They go up and down … Over the long term, time is your friend.”
The disruption won’t last forever and as, Stubbs says, it’s only a paper loss at the moment…

This was in March this year. How anyone can talk reassuringly about normality I don’t know – myopia? It is no help to spell out the worst, (don’t frighten the horses), but caution and ensuring that everything is watertight would be a good way to invest to your best advantage I would think. Long term – when everything we buy is made to last short term, and some not at all, like the Natifact coalition (like an artifact but badly designed and without grace)? And telling whoppers is okay because no-one notices anyway – they are looking at something else on their devices.

Comments are closed.

Contribute

2 COMMENTS