This is NOT a neutral tax policy for the ‘squeezed middle’, it’s class war for rich landlords

ByMartyn Bradbury

The way the mainstream media are framing National’s Tax Plan as anything less than the manifesto of the greedy rich is truly outrageous!

National are funding this tax cut (that will benefit rich landlords most) by taking away 20 hours ECE for 2 year olds, mutilating public transport and stealing from climate funds.

It is an outrageous transfer of wealth to rich landlords.

National claim it’s for the ‘squeezed middle’ when it’s far more destructive than that.

Matthew Hooton’s analysis of National’s budget is scathing…

National concedes savings alone won’t fund its tax cuts, so also announced four new taxes. None applies to tax-exempt “charities” such as Go Bus, Shotover Jet, Sanitarium and Mission Estate Winery.

The first new tax, which National developed with assistance from Auckland’s Sky City Casino, is on offshore gambling websites. Labour says it already taxes them, collecting nearly $40 million a year in GST.

The second new tax is charging foreigners higher visa fees.

These two would raise a few hundred million dollars.

The third is bigger, which is reversing Labour’s Covid-era tax break for commercial property investors, forecast to raise just over $2b over the next four years.

The fourth is the proposed tax on foreign buyers purchasing properties worth over $2m.

The tax won’t apply to Australians, Singaporeans and perhaps citizens of other countries with which New Zealand has tax and trade treaties, but National says it will bring in $3b.

For that to be true, foreigners from countries other than Australia, Singapore and so forth would need to buy around $20b of houses over the next four years.

That’s more than 6000 houses with an average value of $3m. That assumption seems heroic, even if encouraging people to sell houses to foreigners to fund tax cuts is a good idea.

…National’s budget is bullshit, based on wildly crazed assumptions which fundamentally rely on cutting services to the poor so their rich Landlord mates get a tax subsidy of $250 a fortnight!

When you consider how much money the Real Estate Pimps have poured into National, we don’t have a democracy, we have an auction.

We have an undeclared class war occurring right before our eyes, a naked manifesto of self interest at the deficit of the poorest and voters will give National and ACT this driven by a sense of vengeance against Labour for navigating us through Covid.

3283 – NZ (population 5m)

24755 – Sweden (10m)

9162 – Ireland (5m)

191211 – Italy (59m)

Those are the numbers.

That’s how many died from Covid and the population of each nation, compared to Ireland we are talking about 6000 lives difference.

That’s the price we sacrificed to protect as many people as we could, to leave no one behind.

What National are arguing for is to leave us behind.

To fund tax cuts from the poorest while raiding climate change funds isn’t a tax policy, it’s political vandalism!

This country is about to plunge into steep economic crisis, taking from the poorest to shield the richest is obscene and there is a price to pay for this.

Labour and the Greens have been woeful, but sweet Jesus them on a bad day is better than National and ACT on a good day.

Any day.

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22 Comments

  1. No Nicola told us they would go after the non compliant gamblers….not the property speculators who even under our old legislation really intend to “trade” in property.

    These are the people who claim to be better managers of the economy. The numbers don’t stack up at all. That doesn’t matter because they will campaign on this, win and then say they can’t afford the tax cuts because trade is dropping faster than we thought ( though they actually gave more than a hunch). They’ll do the property bits but watch the rest disappear. It will be their “I won’t put up GST” moment

  2. It’s just what you wanted, plus Labour & the Greens can go back to what they do best, whine from the opposition benches.

    1. But they can never beat the AmDram Queen of whining and whinging – Trickola Willis herself!
      Just listening to her has me cowering and looking for cover. So little wonder Mr Luxon is in awe of her.
      Though you’re not too bad yourself but, as a caged rat, you can almost be excused for your ridiculous rantings.

      1. I know Verity. This was their nod to diversity. Find the female version of Simon Bridges. Granted it should not be about how people sound, but now she had confirmed the words are as bad as the sonic presentation it’s hard not to point it out

  3. Tax cuts for the ‘squeezed middle’. On come on National. Can’t you think of something new to attract dumbass swing voters? And as for funding it all. Surely the Nats considered the possibility it would come under close scrutiny. Got the maths right, eh? Nah, Luxton and Willis are simply being misleading, at best. You can see it their faces.

  5. National’s tax plan, as announced this week, won’t happen. It is an exercise in messaging, not a blueprint.

    We were told we would have to wait until after the next PREFU announcement (12 Sept) to see the plan because National wanted to work with the most up to date figures and avoid a repeat of Goldsmith’s fumbling performance in 2020. Now it has arrived before PREFU, during Curia’s next polling period, with promises of giving you more than Labour will if you tick enough boxes and are not affected by what is taken away. Most importantly, the plan arrives with the parallel message of how bad the books will be when National take office.

    Because tax cuts would likely prove inflationary, and because National has overhyped being able to deliver a meaningful tax cut, National has to make it’s promises now, knowing that the coming PREFU can give them an out from actually having to proceed. They would have loved to have given you tax relief, but it now might be smaller or delivered later if only Labour hadn’t fucked everything up.

    The main messages are tax cuts and “the books are in a mess!”, but National also gets to put a toe in the water by signalling that foreign buyers will return, with provisos for now.

  7. HOPE.
    Having
    Omniscient
    Perspective
    Eternally.
    Coz we care about each other. It’s our country. We run it. Vote wisely. Let’s send all self-serving arseholes a crystal clear message. There are more kiwis who give a damn about each other and the younger one’s coming up behind us, than there are of the filthy self serving kind amongst us. Don’t forget that hope is powerful. As are we, together.

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