The Greens wealth tax

[Lilith7]

So you're all frothing at the thought of more money being taken from "the rich" to be given to you...and yet they're the greedy ones?

Also, the Green's policy is poorly thought out and the policy document is written either by people that don't actually understand how the tax system works or they're being deliberately dishonest and misleading; I suspect its probably a combination of the two.

People have this idea that trusts are only used by "rich people" to dodge tax, when that just isn't true for so many people who set one up. For almost all of my many clients who have trusts, any tax benefit (and often there isn't any) is a secondary "bonus" rather than the reason for having a trust. And yet they would all be hammered by the proposed 1.5% trusts tax despite many being on pretty modest incomes. By way of an example, one client is on a salary of $90K and has her own home in a trust to keep it out of relationship property (why should any guy she lives with for 3years get half of it when he never put a cent towards its purchase). Under the Green's tax policy, her annual tax bill would increase from the current $20k she pays up to $45K! And there are plenty more like her.

If that's what you think then you've misunderstood badly; what's wanted is less inequality & more fairness, which is a very different thing to greed. 

Accumulating money for its own sake isn't what is meant but rather a more equal division of it.

Some though, have strong objections to any hint of a  fairer method.


For some insight into the situation here as contrasted with other countries which are almost all far better off, this sets it out clearly.


https://thespinoff.co.nz/books/19-03-202...divides-us


"Physically separated, people of different status slowly lose their understanding of how the other half lives. Their sense of those other people being “like” them, their feeling of having something in common with them, and consequently their empathy for and trust in them, all dwindle. In Auckland, for instance, people have become less likely to volunteer in other communities, to share their skills across social and economic boundaries, as those communities have become more segregated. 



And they dominate our politics. Rashbrooke cites research comparing the makeup of the 1972 and 2017 New Zealand parliaments. Our politicians in 2017 are far more diverse in terms of gender and ethnicity; but far richer than the rest of us, and: 

In 1972, one MP in five had done blue-collar work – in clerical, service-sector or labouring jobs – immediately before entering Parliament. That was still unrepresentative of the population at large (of whom 71% did such work), but ensured a modicum of socio-economic diversity. "

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"The employment contracts act 1991 made it harder for people to bargain collectively & helped reduce the proportion of workers covered by a trade union from 70% to its current 17%.
If the share of revenue going to wage earners had stayed at 70%, the average wage in 2020 would have been $14,000 higher. That income went instead to business owners."

Too much money, Max Rashbrooke