NZ Centre for Political Research

*This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*NZ claims to be a leader in so many things such as ETS and all maner of research, why cant it be a Lesder in Tax reduction. Graham

*It's a no brainer....especially company tax.....Key should have reduced co tax before personal. If we had 15% co tax business from all over the world would flock here. This would generate much more employment, drive wages up, dramatically increase the overall tax take. Then it would be time to reduce personal taxes. Ronmac

*Too many secret deals. Allan

*Of course they would because the more effort people made the more they could earn and, if taxes were lower, the more money they would keep and spend. You only have to look at how well the countries with lower taxation rates are doing. It is not rocket science, however the envy brigade will do anything to stop those who strive to improve themselves by hard work achieving more than the useless bludgers who are too lazy to get off their butts. Hence the exhorbitant taxation rates that we suffer in NZ. Allan

*Not going to happen under the National Socialists, Key does not care about NZ's future. What category does the Treaty industry come under - welfare? Welfare renders people useless, none more so than the maori treatyists, coming back for more & more taxpayer money. Monica

*Yes, but there are many other ways to improve our economic performance, but we don't have politicians with the guts to implement them. Murray

*Of course lower tax rates would improve economic performance when we spend 118 days working for central government. However Government spending must be reduced particularly payment of unjustified claims to Maori and Social welfare payments to people who could contribute to the economy. Peter

This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*Without doubt, lower taxes would improve New Zealand's economic performance. Neil

*Absolutely totally! Businesses spend far too much on tax and compliance. If they could spend that time and money on their business the results would be hugely beneficial AND our unemployment rates would go through the floor. Caroline

*Because the govt pees it down the creek. Was going to buy a new ute for the business, till dracula in a business siut showed up, now that money goes to somebody on the social welfare, so we have worked for nothing to get that money. Sam

*Yes - BUT: only on the back of a massively reduced government. Our bloated parasite that we call "government" is nothing more than a UN / globalist tool to enslave and impoverish us all. And what a good job they've done in that regard. :\ May they choke on the money they've stolen off us over the last 40 years: may it rot them from the inside out. >:( Peter

*Taxes do not provide an incentive to accomplish. I don't think that there were ever indended to do so. However taxes are now so high that they are a disincentive to accomplishment. Further comments can be found on www.growNZeconomy.co.nz Brian

*As long as Bi-culturalism is the policy of Govts we will never balance the budget and taxes will continue to increase. Laurie

*Provided the welfare system is thoroughly overhauled. I know people who constantly have overseas holidays but have a communicare card and run to Wins when they need a new stove etc.or to ACC when the cat scratches them. Mary

*When 46% of NZ er's rely on Govt spending for their jobs or take-home-pay, lower tax rates are a non-starter. This suggests that it will never happen as so much of the population is reliant on "make-work"/paper-shuffling with NO productive wealth producing base. While this 46% are happy to be parasites on the rest of us, thinking they are gainfully employed, then cutting their tax-payer funded wages/salaries would create a kind of austerity that would put blood on the streets.No Govt. has the balls to do that.So we will just have to live with an increasing tax burden until there are no more productive activities in our economy to pay for the 50%+ parasites that expect something for nothing.Inflation or the depreciating purchasing power of our currency thru money-printing Bernancky-style is the only other option......and then in the end we all lose.Of course there is one other option and that is to increase the taxes on the domestic economy by 60%+ to fund their paper-shuffling and reduce the export economy by 50% to a base of 10% flat tax and at least that will reward the sectors that produce the wealth, which is the only way NZ is likely to improve its economic performance. Heating up the domestic economy with tax cuts will just mean more people will spend their windfalls on more imported junk made in China and b/c demand will increase retailers will up their prices and we are all back to square one, except the export sector that will be priced out of business by input-costs set by internal domestic demands and inflated asset values. Ced

This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*And Council rates too which are totally out of control! Peter

*Only an idiot would believe Government can fix the economy by taxing the hell out of it. Peter

*Along with better, more realistic education & a sense of personal responsibility. Dave

*Naturally it would, then a person would have more to spend on what ever they liked. What needs to happen is a huge reduction in Local & Central Goverment & cut there staff by 50% as well as Politicans, we are paying far to much for non productive people. Geoff

*LOW TAXES FOR LOW INCOMES AND HIGH TAXES FOR HIGH INCOME. IT IS THE ONLY ANSWER AS IT IS LOGICAL. RAWIRI

*Govt should only spend what it gets, the same for all of us. Donald

*Flat rate Taxes result in a leap in economic indicators across the board. It has to be simple. It has to be universal and it has to be comprehensive (no let offs and exceptions). The only folks to suffer would be the Tax lawyers and accountants. Vested interests keep the taxes as they are. Rice University did a study of the NZ Tax and economy and came up with recommendations for a 'neutral' flat rate tax on both personal and company tax. That was 30 years ago and we are still waiting. The numbers tell the story but bipartisan opposition to the concept of a flat tax is so deeply entrenched that I hold little hope of it ever getting traction even though it is proven to stimulate the economy. Politics and ideology trumps logic every time! Peter

This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*The main problem is that too many NZers work (?) for government and local government. Not all that long ago only 3% of our population worked in these areas and thus a tax rate of 3% was all was needed. now is it close to 50% and the tax required is...... I rest my case. Ian

*Yes, and also get rid of secondry employment tax. Bruce

*There is no longer blood flowing through the veins of our economy because of over taxation! Andy

*If personal taxes are lower, then the government will just increase other consumer costs to feed their greedy, snowballing, ever expanding expenditure of so-called governance. We'll still pay, one way or the other. Jayne

*It's a no-brainer unless you are a socialist and believe in economic fairy tales where magic money (from someone else) suddenly appears and solves your problem. Albeit temporarily! Lech

*Government and its agencies are inefficient in delivering services and always create unnecessary bureaucracy. Business has to jump through hurdles to become compliant which affects the bottom line profit. Local Government is inefficient and extremely costly to operate. They provide poor quality services mainly because the politicians and staff do not know how to look after money. Private individuals and business always have to closely monitor the bottom line or financial difficulties will arise whereas the State can increase taxes, rates or levies which ends up hiding any incompetencies and inefficiencies that are present.
State interference takes away peoples right to take care of themselves and now the expectation is that, well, they take all this money in taxes so the State can provision me with those services. People do not want to pay twice. Taxes do not treat people equally and certainly aren't spent equally. Take unemployment benefits for example, should this money just be given out each week or should it come with some sort of payback like a student debt. This would drive people to be creative and get a job etc, it would be a huge incentive to get this group back to work. Single parents should be similar. The spend now and get the next generation to pay for it attitude disguises the real problems which are never effectively dealt with. You cannot have one sector working and the other sector spending it as this lowers and limits economic performance. The people working had the nous to earn so it follows they will have the nous to invest and spend wisely and if they don't spend wisely they will lose their money. The free market fails when political interference is entrenched. Many Politicians are nothing more than highly paid beneficiaries who dramatically lower economic performance at all levels. This is not helped by mainstream media who don't seem able to grasp the issue of economics. They frequently look at one small problem and without the whole picture being taken into consideration. The mainstream media has a disgusting disregard for the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and also the NZ Bill of Rights. Jackie

This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*It would help the country if the govt. stopped giving my money to the racist maori leeches among us. John

*The only thing to truly improve economic performance will be to SIGNIFICANTLY SLASH cost of government. What we need is the big ticket item (welfare is 57 BILLION per year) to come down by half. The challenge is for shearer, peters, key and company to figure out how to do this WHILE increasing the pension. But, that's just a joke, because Key hasn't got the bollocks for the job and shearer seems unable to put two words together without an ""um"" in the middle. Winston? Well, it's nice to have some light relief, I suppose. Mark

*Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?
The simple economic answer is of course “YES”, the reality is that no Government under the present MMP situation, would even dare to lower taxes in the present economic environment.
The exception being of course, by following the perennial Socialist solution “O.K. provided the RICH were made to pay the taxes that would be lost”.
There is another query, “Would lowering taxes have any impact - apart from Agriculture - on the cost of producing items for export”?. In other words we will still face greater overall costs of production than our compeditors due to:-
1. Higher through put manufacturing costs than other exporting competitors.
2. Higher internal costs generated by the imposition of stringent working conditions, R.M.A legislation, and the ever increasing bureaucracy of both central Government and Local Government on private industry.
3. The overall low output per worker in comparison with other exporting countries.
4. Finally our huge internal transportation costs, and distance from overseas markets. In the matter of overseas transport we still have the choice of using low cost shipping lines.

Until the National Government reduces overall governmental expenditure, ceases to placate Maori by annual grants of cash, and reduces the internal burden of obscene welfare and benefit expenditure. Any lowering of taxes, will only happen if Poll results actually signify a potential loss of the Government Benches at the next election!
Brian

*Apart from anything else, it would free up capital for further investment. Peter

*Lower taxes with lesser benefit payouts will cure this country's sick economy! Johann

*Definitely it can only be good for everyone. Clark

*As a chartered accountant who assists small business operators I have observed that the proportion of overall tax to take home pay is proportionally too high given the imposition of gst at 15% plus income tax. David

*My wife and I are retired and on a limited income, paying 20% tax. A friend, who is Millionaire, pays also only 20%. There are always ways...... What good would bring your proposal for people like us? Ortwin

This week's poll asks:

Would lower tax rates improve our economic performance?

*Absolutely! We definitely need lower taxes. Politicians should keep their hands off our money. All those who want to put up taxes are just arrogant and reedy. But will anyone ever have the courage to do something serious to transform NZ into the prosperous country we could be? I really have my doubts. Susan

*A 20% tax rate would transform NZ. Bring it on! Brian

*Yes, lower taxes are the way of the future. Big government is yesterday's problem - look how it has taken the developed world to the brink of disaster. Let's hope the socialists realise that. Jim

*Economic freedom is what we should be pressing for. George

*We need a tax freedom day like Korea! Low taxes are surely the way of the future. Peter