And it’s not the only existing provision the Inland Revenue could look at enforcing in the face of runaway house prices and wealth inequality, writes Terry Baucher. Thirty-one years ago this month, then-Labour finance minister David Caygill proposed a comprehensive capital gains tax including the family home. The proposal was made following the release of … Read more
Expected to be the most significant in a generation, Thursday’s budget will reveal how the government will offset the monstrous cost of Covid-19. Terry Baucher explores the likelihood of tax changes. As usual, the finance minister is not lacking for advice in the run-up to this week’s budget. It ought to be something of a … Read more
From the reemerging debate around capital gains tax to the increasing reach of tax authorities, Terry Baucher, writing for interest.co.nz, looks at a number of implications the coronavirus pandemic could have on the tax system. “There are decades when nothing happens and there are weeks when decades happen,” Lenin is said to have remarked, possibly … Read more
Uber’s habit of pushing tax rules to breaking point is the reason Terry Baucher refuses to use the ridesharing service. But price and convenience outweigh most people’s moral indignation, he writes. In the 2010s the true extent of aggressive tax planning practices by tech giants like Apple, Google and Facebook emerged. These behemoths simultaneously piled up … Read more
The government should go ahead and introduce a digital services tax to show the likes of Facebook and Google that their tax planning practices are unacceptable, writes Terry Baucher. Around the world tax authorities and the voting public are coming to the conclusion that current international taxation rules give digital companies an unfair advantage over traditional businesses. A … Read more
Along with no CGT, the Labour government is left with other tax headaches like what to do about sugar consumption, the environment, and tax thresholds that haven’t changed in a decade, writes Terry Baucher. Perhaps the Tax Working Group was fatally compromised from the outset when the taxation of the family home was excluded from … Read more
Imposing a Digital Services Tax will concentrate the tech giants’ minds on their woeful response to the Christchurch massacre, writes Terry Baucher. What to do about Facebook, Google and Twitter’s reprehensible failure to stop the live-streaming of a terrorist atrocity and the dissemination of vile images? How about a 20% Digital Services Tax, for starters … Read more
SkyCity’s moves to set up an offshore online gambling subsidiary throw up a huge range of questions about just how tax should work in the digital age, writes tax consultant Terry Baucher. The news that SkyCity is voluntarily paying perhaps as much as $40 million in “tax” sounds like someone actually took seriously the remark … Read more
Employee subsidies for public transport, less tax on KiwiSaver: There are some gems in the government’s latest tax report other than the capital gains distraction, writes tax expert Terry Baucher. For over 50 years a variety of tax working groups have pondered the greatest philosophical question in New Zealand tax: Should we tax all capital … Read more
Will the latest review of our tax system be another instance of New Zealand dancing around a capital gains tax? Tax specialist Terry Baucher investigates. The news that the Tax Working Group’s interim report due out very shortly won’t specifically recommend a capital gains tax (CGT) begs the question: Is this the fifth such group … Read more
Provisional tax has long been contentious and complained about by small business owners. A new cloud-based system has been launched to pay it, but tax consultant Terry Baucher says it could be grounded by the same old problems. A new tax year started on April 1 and with it came a much-touted new option for … Read more
The government has announced an increase in the minimum wage, but tax consultant Terry Baucher says a shift in tax brackets might make us all better off. In response to our low wage economy the new government has committed to raising the minimum wage from $16.50 an hour progressively to $20.21 per hour by 2020. Aside … Read more
Any political party wanting a fairer, more productive New Zealand needs to address the issue of the taxation of capital, argues Terry Baucher. This story was originally published on interest.co.nz. Earlier this week, interest.co.nz editor Gareth Vaughan asked me whether a New Zealand political party could ever sell the idea of a capital gains tax … Read more