French Turkeys vote for Early Christmas

A few days ago, I opened a newspaper to the “World” section and read a headline that said something like… French Presidential Candidate Promises to end Austerity Well, from that moment I knew who was going to win. I mean, who’d vote for austerity? Pain, suffering and discipline aren’t exactly vote winners – never have been. Winston Churchill…

Please compare like with like

TVHE makes a point that has been occurring to me recently. “Wages not keeping up with inflation” that is the headline we get here.  While I’m sure that will get a lot of people wound up and complaining about something, its a load of cr*p. Actually looking through the numbers, we see that gross wage growth is…

Tip: Christmas Clubs

For many Christmas Club schemes you’ve got just over 10 days left to put your money in. What that means is that you can (for example) go into the warehouse and start an account today, and in a few weeks time get 5% discount. Even better, if you time it right using your credit cared,…

Inflation 1.5%

Well, the Labour party has egg on it’s face today after the announcement that inflation is currently at 1.5%. After crying foul about National’s increase in GST, it’s a timely reminder that Labour’s concern for price creep is only a recent phenomena, having run inflation at a much higher average than during the 90’s –…

3c in the Dollar

No, it’s not the GST increase, it’s what Hubbard investors are getting back. Investors in Allan Hubbard’s Aorangi Securities have been told they might get an initial repayment of up to three cents in the dollar later this month, but will have to wait till the middle of next year for any more. The Government…

Good Customer Service

I do tend to go on a bit (in real life) about customer service – good or bad. This guy gets full marks. Chelsea writes: “To the kind man who stopped on the northwestern motorway to help a blushing girl last Friday at 5.30pm. I had foolishly run out of petrol, when to my surprise…

Accusing MPs of self-interest over tax a little bit silly sometimes

Thought this old post from Kiwiblog spoke to some recent events. One of the frustrating things about trying to have a sensible debate about the correct level of taxation in this country, is that whenever an MP talks about reducing the tax burden, left wing MPs allege their only motivation is self interest and play…

Tax Cuts, Fairness and Pie

ZenTiger repeats the old story of the 10 men at the restaurant. It’s a good story to illustrate the way we talk about tax. But I was thinking the other day, that it could be improved by the addition of some actual illustrations – graphs. So here goes. ——- Every day, ten men went to…

How much tax do familes really pay?

The other day, DPF posted this chart. If you have even just one child you do not pay any income tax until you are earning $42,000! And you keep receiving WFF until you earn $74,000. With two kids, then your family pays no income tax $50,000 of income. And you receive WFF until you earn…

Who first signed up to cutting the top rate?

Well, I would make the case that Labour was the party that first agreed to cut the top tax rate. In their 2005 agreement with United Future, it was agreed: they will conduct a review of the current business taxation regimes with the view of ensuring the system works to give better incentives for productivity…