Any thoughts on transaction taxes?

Sounds ideal, if only it had wider international backing.

But Mr Key said lowering the top tax rate to 33c so it aligned with the trust rate would help stop people sheltering their income in trusts to try to avoid higher personal taxes.…

__Personal income tax makes up the lion's share of revenue collected by the Government – income taxes…

I think you're wrong. From memory Cullen's "Chewing Gum" Budget in 05 proposed ending fiscal drag by automatically adjusting brackets for inflation. It was a pretty gutsy move at the time, but very politcally unsexy.

This adjustment was abandoned along with the tax cuts when Cullen launched the "Block…

... or you'd need to take a pretty massive punt at the rich, which is actually quite problematic because they can rearrange their affairs into trusts etc.

Uh... they already do that, no?

Also on my wishlist – income scales that slide up with inflation annually, so we don't have people creeping up the scales as their income goes up as money gets worth less.

The problem is that fiscal drag (the opposite of what you want – which is when the govt…

See what you've done? You've broken the nutshell.

That's what happens when you bring a hammer to the argument.

The Greens were proposing that their carbon tax could be used to create a tax-offset (I would prefer a simple cheque, actually, for political reasons). I don't think it would generate…

Obviously you'd want to pair it with the introduction of another tax, so you'd be revenue neutral.

Problem is that the tax free bracket applies to everyone, so to offset it, you'd need to either tax the whole of the middle-class a bit more (which is politically unpopular), or you'd…

In a separate nutshell: Been costed. Too expensive. (Because you have to pay every single taxpayer $20+/week.)

Yes, what George said. A percent or two at middle incomes would pay for it I would guess.

Also on my wishlist – income scales that slide up with inflation annually, so we…

In a separate nutshell: Been costed. Too expensive. (Because you have to pay every single taxpayer $20+/week.)

Obviously you'd want to pair it with the introduction of another tax, so you'd be revenue neutral.

the various tax free allowances in the US system – there you can write off the interest on your mortgage, your rates, cost of registering your car, .... it's also why, when I lived there, I filed a 20-30 page tax return ....

Same story in Canada,…

Surely the attraction of Australia isn't the tax rates, it's just that incomes are higher? Which is much more of a hard job for the government (or indeed anyone) to do anything about.

In a nutshell: Yes.

I'd love it if we had the first 5 thousand tax free in…

2025 taskforce report... proposes to raise our income to the level of Australia by drastically reducing our social spending...

The theory is less public spending means more efficient private provision, which is more cost-effective and frees up resources for more profitable activities. Then we'll all be rich!

That's the theory,…

You've ignored the thresholds that those rates come into force.

...which matters for those on low and middle incomes (hence, they're better off), but matters far less for those on high and very-high incomes – i.e. The highly skilled, highly mobile workers.

For workers at the top end of the…

You've ignored the thresholds that those rates come into force.

in real terms we wouldn't catch up at all

Depends which "we" they're tinking of – those who can already afford to buy their own health, education and so on?

I love actual facts.

Me too. I'd therefore advise against reading the foolish "tax is theft" blustering on that Kiwibog thread.

Would that small ideologically -blinded group include the nice Dr Brash ?

He's one of the dudes handing out blindfolds

Would also be interesting to see the same treatment from the perspective of a small business owner employing staff, including all those costs of doing business that we have so few…

And bloody nice graphs, too!

I tell people that, and they don't believe me, in part because the debate about this issue has been distorted by a small ideologically-blinded group.

Of course, there is redistribution on the other side of the…

They're not taxes on income, but many countries (including Australia) have stamp duties and death duties, and capital gains taxes, whereas we don't. If you look at the overall picture we're not…

I'd love it if we had the first 5 thousand tax free in NZ. It probably wouldn't…

Sure, it's a tax burden, but it's not something that comes out of their taxable income, so to compare it with a place that doesn't have payroll tax, you'd need to determine what income would be if the payroll tax was just income tax... and then…