Labour's proposed pulling GST off of fresh and frozen unprocessed fruit and vegetables. It might give $4/week in savings on average, and less than for lower decile households that spend less on fruit and veg.
They've pitched it partially as a response to cost of living pressures. But the income tax thresholds haven't been adjusted since 2010. If you only partially adjusted the bottom tax threshold to account for inflation since 2017, increasing it from $14k to $17k, you'd give everyone $210. Even jobseeker benefits are now above $17k.
So beneficiaries would get the $210 as well.
The same $4/week, except everyone gets that amount, rather than more going to those who spend a lot on fresh vegetables.
And without wrecking GST.
It's so stupid.
Some roundup, mainly so I can find this all again in a decade when someone's dumb enough to propose it again:
- RNZ morning report. They couldn't find tax expert or economist who supports the idea. I show up a bit in here.
- Jo Moir at Newsroom points out some of the problems. Marc Daalder says its government by focus group.
- They're paying for this mess by getting rid of depreciation for commercial buildings. But commercial buildings depreciate. So they're funding the creation of a distortion by creating another distortion. Dumb. Dumber than a sack of hammers.
- I'd hit some of the problems in Newsroom, when it was just a rumor. And at RNZ.
- I hit it again after the announcement, noting the obvious alternative of just increasing the bottom tax threshold.
No comments:
Post a Comment