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“ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas today slammed the Government’s decision to increase GST to 15 percent, labelling it as totally unnecessary and calling it a reckless revenue grab.”
I think someone’s jealous they couldn’t balance the books that well…whiel it may not be a total tax break 0-14k on 10.5% is getting very close to it and will certainly help with the student issue. it’s a budget where everyone does win out, even if the win is only 20-dollars after gst purchasing – so set up a company
Another broken promise is that there would be no losers with the GST change. Well there are losers.
Anyone on a benefit or on Super who spends more than this income (using income from investments or running down their savings) will spend more because of the GST increase than they receive in payment adjustment – the adjustment is made on the assumption that people are living within their benfit and Super income.
Thus a demonstrable group of people – those on UB, DPB, SB, IB and those on Super who resort to other income – who will be worse off. Another broken promise.
@Stephen – National have some other things in store for students I believe, something about student allowances. And how about those lucky students who have been denied entry despite their eligibility?
@Rebecca if even Douglas is disturbed then it must be bad!
Come on Rebecca you must bean count, 9c on this something else on that, it all adds up!
Yep sure does – perhaps not for all though. It would equate to about $3 on our grocery bill and & we have no big purchases to make (cars, tv, fridges etc) within the next 5 or so years (all going well!) so hopefully shouldn’t notice the dent too much.
I guess the key thing would be to ensure that if you do have big purchases to make to make them before 1 Oct!
SPC, is making the deficit higher a bad thing? If so, how much higher or lower would the deficit have been if Cunliffe was giving the budget this year, and do you approve of the deficit that we would have had under Labour?
$3 on your grocery bill Rebecca – unless someone decides this would be a great excuse to also flow through additional price increases that they have been holding back on.
And, not great for families where $3 means that another 20% of their disposable income for the week disappears
That key-no-GST-rise certainly is certainly irrelevant. Indeed Bernard Hickey said a few months ago when he was actually criticising Key (Do the hard work John, NZH 17/2/10)
“All he has to do is blame Labour for the economic, taxation and spending distortions now evident and convince New Zealanders they are better off in the long run with a cleaner, simpler, broader and flatter tax system.”
I say that happened today.
Loota – that $3 extra is based on a grocery bill of $200 – $200 that includes loads of fruit & vegetables and pretty much zero junk & takeaways, no cigarettes and minimal alcohol & feeds 2 adults & one small child. It also includes quite a few luxury items so I would doubt a low income family would be spending $200 unless they have a huge number of kids which of course makes me think personal responsibility…
In terms of the maths….Treasury has predicted that in terms of a percentage of the average disposable income:
1 Households earning under $40K will be 0.7% better off
2 Households earning $40K to $85K will be 0.4% better off
3 Households earning over $85K will be 0.7% better off
Not really the disaster the Labour party would have us believe….provided of course these predictions are right!
It is after [these tax changes] that the Budget suddenly stops dead in its tracks. Those looking for the bright ideas and initiatives to galvanise economic growth are going to be hugely disappointed.
English might well cite the tax package as such an economic instrument. It certainly gives the highly-educated and highly-skilled greater incentive to stay in New Zealand. It should see a shift from debt-driven consumption to enterprise-creating savings.
…
But tax cuts are tax cuts. This is the replacement package for the cuts National had to postpone because of the global recession. It would be better to be upfront about it rather than have the package masquerading as something else.
All benefits including NZ Super and working for families will increase by 2.02pc to compensate for the increase in GST – from the Nz Herald.
Rebecca, I don’t think those on low incomes, even with large families eligible for WFF will be much worse off, as you quite rightly point out. Who will be worse off are middle income New Zealanders that are not professional landlords and have been renting our their first home they purchased to get them into home ownership, and were able to extend their wealth by buying a second home.
Jammy June – the issue is that they promised that the changes would be tax nuetral. They are not. Obviously there is a problem with this government being economical with the truth.
No increase in GST. The tax changes in the budget would be tax nuetral – not in the first year or the follwoing year …, but maybe after 4 years.
No one would be worse off – well some people will be – there is no allowance for the fact that
some of the money spent by beneficiaures and superannuants comes from their own savings income – yet the GST rate rise compensation only applies as to their benefit or Super rate payment. Thus they will face payments rising because of GST by a higher amount than their benefit or Super payment increase.
stephenmiks – Cullenhad many detractors, many on the left of the political spectrum, but he did balance the books. Can you explain what you mean by English has balanced the books well, when our govt debt is rising?
Monty given your oft criticisms of Labour in the past three terms, I am surprised you are not concerned about the PM not being entirely honest. You can say taken out of context but he was quite happy for it to be taken any way people liked pre election.
Electricity has GST content… this will be, a decent hit on homes too.
I’m not sure the lower tax rate will encourage people to set up a company Stephenm, afterall National and its supporters have been saying for years how anti business NZ is, and not because of taxes but all the pesky setting up costs… of course in fact we have always scored well internationally on ease of setting up businesses.
Does this budget mean we have closed the gap on Australia… and did the cycleway get more money?
Missed the budget. My kids did the same thing as yesterday. One slept, one had quiet time. The older one having quiet time missed the company of his sister (14mths younger) so woke her up. Routines are changing.
We certainly have an interesting view of business people in this country
“Mark Bryers sentenced to 75 hours community work and a fine of $37,500 , plus court costs.
Bryers pleaded guilty to 34 charges relating to book-keeping and record-keeping failures, as well as failing to attend a creditors’ meeting.”
Meanwhile a mother who steals huggies gets 3 months in prison… (a few years ago granted) but really? What’s left for people like Bryers to make them understand the consequences, other than a few months in prison?
I dont know why we even bother to call it white collar crime anymore, there is little criminal consequence.
@Tracey, the budget if kept on trackj by future govt would allow NZ to finally start getting rid of that debt, it’ll take a fair time, but it will happen – the first sign of whether it’ll work seems to be in 2017 where they havesupposed the final debt peak will be relayed
Think about the removal cost , the prison cost and the future cost – a rich man put into jail when released and then leave NZ with his money and well…there goes 20 jobs!
oh and thats excluding the cost of imprisonment
DeepRed – those guys are small fry I’m afraid. Try Lloyd Blankfein and his cohorts. Who engineered the destruction of hundreds of billions of dollars of people’s personal wealth, retirees, monies belonging to school authorities and municipalities, State governments and others.
And made money not just from selling the assets which went down the tubes, but profited further by betting on the opposite side.
Furthermore, these characters are still walking free without a care in the world and big bonus checks underwritten by the US (and other) tax payers.
yeah…you can’t really compare those people to those in NZ….you know maybe if they add a lower and easier to understand tax bracket those individuals wouldn’t have done what they did
These are the voices of Labour MPs on issues that we care about - and we'd like to hear what you think too. What you’ll read are the individual opinions of MPs. We won’t always agree with each other and sometimes our opinions may change.
Sorry – but irrelevant – and taken out of context in any case. The good news for us on the right is that this Budget will get popular support.
Then the promise that tax cuts would be affordable – as the tax changes would be tax nuetral.
$460M is the amount by which the tax changes increased the deficit (that’s $9M a week). And that’s with no full year cost of the company tax change.
No surprises.
Hmmmm, Monty, Key promised no GST increase, and he increased GST. Hence very relevant.
“ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas today slammed the Government’s decision to increase GST to 15 percent, labelling it as totally unnecessary and calling it a reckless revenue grab.”
I think someone’s jealous they couldn’t balance the books that well…whiel it may not be a total tax break 0-14k on 10.5% is getting very close to it and will certainly help with the student issue. it’s a budget where everyone does win out, even if the win is only 20-dollars after gst purchasing – so set up a company
@spud
28% tax for companies
Weehaaa!!!
Another broken promise is that there would be no losers with the GST change. Well there are losers.
Anyone on a benefit or on Super who spends more than this income (using income from investments or running down their savings) will spend more because of the GST increase than they receive in payment adjustment – the adjustment is made on the assumption that people are living within their benfit and Super income.
Thus a demonstrable group of people – those on UB, DPB, SB, IB and those on Super who resort to other income – who will be worse off. Another broken promise.
How IRONIC Sir Roger slammed the GST increase – oh my goodness, that is hilarious!
Yep, broken promise alright – hold onto your hats, Weetbix is going up by 9c
http://www.3news.co.nz/GST-calculator—how-much-more-will-you-pay/tabid/419/articleID/156722/Default.aspx
So Douglas will be voting AGAINST the GST increase ?
I think not!
He speaks with a forked tongue ( as usual)
@Stephen – National have some other things in store for students I believe, something about student allowances. And how about those lucky students who have been denied entry despite their eligibility?
@Rebecca if even Douglas is disturbed then it must be bad!
Come on Rebecca you must bean count, 9c on this something else on that, it all adds up!
Yep sure does – perhaps not for all though. It would equate to about $3 on our grocery bill and & we have no big purchases to make (cars, tv, fridges etc) within the next 5 or so years (all going well!) so hopefully shouldn’t notice the dent too much.
I guess the key thing would be to ensure that if you do have big purchases to make to make them before 1 Oct!
SPC, is making the deficit higher a bad thing? If so, how much higher or lower would the deficit have been if Cunliffe was giving the budget this year, and do you approve of the deficit that we would have had under Labour?
$3 on your grocery bill Rebecca – unless someone decides this would be a great excuse to also flow through additional price increases that they have been holding back on.
And, not great for families where $3 means that another 20% of their disposable income for the week disappears
That key-no-GST-rise certainly is certainly irrelevant. Indeed Bernard Hickey said a few months ago when he was actually criticising Key (Do the hard work John, NZH 17/2/10)
“All he has to do is blame Labour for the economic, taxation and spending distortions now evident and convince New Zealanders they are better off in the long run with a cleaner, simpler, broader and flatter tax system.”
I say that happened today.
Loota – that $3 extra is based on a grocery bill of $200 – $200 that includes loads of fruit & vegetables and pretty much zero junk & takeaways, no cigarettes and minimal alcohol & feeds 2 adults & one small child. It also includes quite a few luxury items so I would doubt a low income family would be spending $200 unless they have a huge number of kids which of course makes me think personal responsibility…
In terms of the maths….Treasury has predicted that in terms of a percentage of the average disposable income:
1 Households earning under $40K will be 0.7% better off
2 Households earning $40K to $85K will be 0.4% better off
3 Households earning over $85K will be 0.7% better off
Not really the disaster the Labour party would have us believe….provided of course these predictions are right!
I like John Armstrong’s comments:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10646087
Rebecca, I pick the increase on your $200 p.w. grocery bill at about $4.45, not three dollars.
$177.78 GST exclusive content on today’s $200 grocery bill. Now add 15% GST.
Just wondering why my estimate is over a third higher than your estimate…weird maybe my math is wrong. :confused:
All benefits including NZ Super and working for families will increase by 2.02pc to compensate for the increase in GST – from the Nz Herald.
Rebecca, I don’t think those on low incomes, even with large families eligible for WFF will be much worse off, as you quite rightly point out. Who will be worse off are middle income New Zealanders that are not professional landlords and have been renting our their first home they purchased to get them into home ownership, and were able to extend their wealth by buying a second home.
Jammy June – the issue is that they promised that the changes would be tax nuetral. They are not. Obviously there is a problem with this government being economical with the truth.
No increase in GST. The tax changes in the budget would be tax nuetral – not in the first year or the follwoing year …, but maybe after 4 years.
No one would be worse off – well some people will be – there is no allowance for the fact that
some of the money spent by beneficiaures and superannuants comes from their own savings income – yet the GST rate rise compensation only applies as to their benefit or Super rate payment. Thus they will face payments rising because of GST by a higher amount than their benefit or Super payment increase.
That’s three broken promises.
stephenmiks – Cullenhad many detractors, many on the left of the political spectrum, but he did balance the books. Can you explain what you mean by English has balanced the books well, when our govt debt is rising?
Monty given your oft criticisms of Labour in the past three terms, I am surprised you are not concerned about the PM not being entirely honest. You can say taken out of context but he was quite happy for it to be taken any way people liked pre election.
Electricity has GST content… this will be, a decent hit on homes too.
I’m not sure the lower tax rate will encourage people to set up a company Stephenm, afterall National and its supporters have been saying for years how anti business NZ is, and not because of taxes but all the pesky setting up costs… of course in fact we have always scored well internationally on ease of setting up businesses.
Does this budget mean we have closed the gap on Australia… and did the cycleway get more money?
Pumpkin Patch Girl’s Top – was $16.99, now $17.37
No like most things it will be 17.99.
Most things will move up to something .99.
The increase will be more than the rise of GST.
GST 2.5%
Benefits rise by 2%
Missed the budget. My kids did the same thing as yesterday. One slept, one had quiet time. The older one having quiet time missed the company of his sister (14mths younger) so woke her up. Routines are changing.
We certainly have an interesting view of business people in this country
“Mark Bryers sentenced to 75 hours community work and a fine of $37,500 , plus court costs.
Bryers pleaded guilty to 34 charges relating to book-keeping and record-keeping failures, as well as failing to attend a creditors’ meeting.”
Meanwhile a mother who steals huggies gets 3 months in prison… (a few years ago granted) but really? What’s left for people like Bryers to make them understand the consequences, other than a few months in prison?
I dont know why we even bother to call it white collar crime anymore, there is little criminal consequence.
@Tracey, the budget if kept on trackj by future govt would allow NZ to finally start getting rid of that debt, it’ll take a fair time, but it will happen – the first sign of whether it’ll work seems to be in 2017 where they havesupposed the final debt peak will be relayed
@Tracey
Think about the removal cost , the prison cost and the future cost – a rich man put into jail when released and then leave NZ with his money and well…there goes 20 jobs!
oh and thats excluding the cost of imprisonment
So some crooks are more valuable than others!
You want a crook who gets the job done. How about inviting the mafia? 
@Herodotus, Spud: And while we’re at it, Bernard Madoff and Jeff Skilling.
PS: Oops, I meant Stephensmikm, not Herodotus.
DeepRed – those guys are small fry I’m afraid. Try Lloyd Blankfein and his cohorts. Who engineered the destruction of hundreds of billions of dollars of people’s personal wealth, retirees, monies belonging to school authorities and municipalities, State governments and others.
And made money not just from selling the assets which went down the tubes, but profited further by betting on the opposite side.
Furthermore, these characters are still walking free without a care in the world and big bonus checks underwritten by the US (and other) tax payers.
yeah…you can’t really compare those people to those in NZ….you know maybe if they add a lower and easier to understand tax bracket those individuals wouldn’t have done what they did
Tax? No sir, I don’t think those individuals pay this thing commoners call “tax”.
On the contrary, world economies and Govts pay *them* tax.