A major problem we have in New Zealand is that the Government now collects taxes too easily.
When I think back to the 1970s there was no GST, there was sales tax on luxury-type goods but income tax was high. I recall the top rate of 60 cents coming in at $24,000. That meant if you got a pay rise of $1000 you lost $600 of it to the Government straight away.
Then there was the reform in 1986, which dropped the income tax rate in exchange for GST at 10 per cent. Three years later GST jumped to 12.5 per cent and in 2010 it changed to the current 15 per cent. With today's high inflation, the Government is now really creaming it.
Meantime the thresholds for income tax have not changed since 2010. Now many workers have to suffer the rate of 30 per cent, which comes in at $48,000 per annum. Effectively the Government says they are rich.
Five years ago Labour scrapped National's proposed increasing the income tax thresholds to combat past inflation. Per my opening remark that Governments get their money too easily, which then enables them to waste it on their fancy ideas and projects.
Why not reduce GST to 10 per cent and force the Government to properly consider income tax rates each year?
Bill Capamagian, Tauranga City.