Whose got the best tax system - Oz or NZ?
Feb 26th 2004, 7:44 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Northland, NZ
Posts: 113
Whose got the best tax system - Oz or NZ?
Hi,
Boring subject for me ... but as Mr. Servant24kids says "a subject we cannot escape". Does anyone know (or can put me onto a link) about the tax situation in these countries?
You know ... income tax, med/national insurance, GST/VAT or similar, stamp duty, capital gains, inheritance tax, gift tax etc., and any other "stealth" taxes we should know about.
Picked up some snippets of info in threads but really need more.
Hope you can help.
Boring subject for me ... but as Mr. Servant24kids says "a subject we cannot escape". Does anyone know (or can put me onto a link) about the tax situation in these countries?
You know ... income tax, med/national insurance, GST/VAT or similar, stamp duty, capital gains, inheritance tax, gift tax etc., and any other "stealth" taxes we should know about.
Picked up some snippets of info in threads but really need more.
Hope you can help.
Feb 26th 2004, 8:29 pm
#2
Joined: Aug 2003
Posts: 11,149
Re: Whose got the best tax system - Oz or NZ?
Originally posted by Servant24kids
Hi,
Boring subject for me ... but as Mr. Servant24kids says "a subject we cannot escape". Does anyone know (or can put me onto a link) about the tax situation in these countries?
You know ... income tax, med/national insurance, GST/VAT or similar, stamp duty, capital gains, inheritance tax, gift tax etc., and any other "stealth" taxes we should know about.
Picked up some snippets of info in threads but really need more.
Hope you can help.
Hi,
Boring subject for me ... but as Mr. Servant24kids says "a subject we cannot escape". Does anyone know (or can put me onto a link) about the tax situation in these countries?
You know ... income tax, med/national insurance, GST/VAT or similar, stamp duty, capital gains, inheritance tax, gift tax etc., and any other "stealth" taxes we should know about.
Picked up some snippets of info in threads but really need more.
Hope you can help.
In Oz (I guess NZ is the same) there are hidden taxes every corner you turn. Stamp duty on housing and cars purchases, insurance taxes, airport noise levies, debits taxes on cheque accounts etc etc. There is no NI but there is the medicare levy.
A big difference with OZ is the negative gearing which is widely used to invest in property. Sounds great but you have to make a loss on the property to negatively gear it. The investors are hoping for capital gains.
It all depends on your earnings and your situation in life.
For Oz go to www.ato.gov.au
Finally taxes change and should not be the basis for your migration decision.
Feb 27th 2004, 1:58 am
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: On the beach in Christchurch
Posts: 43
"Imagine I told you that there was a Western country where there was no capital gains tax, no estate or death taxes, no wealth tax, no transfer tax or stamp duty, unlimited deductibility of losses (paper or real) in one enterprise against profits in another, no limit to the amount of mortgage interest you can deduct against income, and generous depreciation rates based on purchase price and not written-down book value as passed on from owner to owner. Would this pique your interest? What if I went on that capital growth in this country had averaged 10 percent per annum for the last 100 years, that there was a stable political environment, and that the country in question was an extremely desirable place to live. Would you think of going there to invest?"
I do find the NZ system better than the US.......much simpler I think
Feb 27th 2004, 10:11 am
#5
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Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2004
Location: Northland, NZ
Posts: 113
Re: Whose got the best tax system - Oz or NZ?
Many thanks for your replies. Mr. Servant24kids is looking at them intently 
Seriously, we wouldn't make a decision based entirely on the tax positions of both countries but for some reason we do have a complicated tax history
with self-employment, personal investment and inheritances all confusingly mixed together.
Would be nice to 'ditch' some of this history with a 'fresh' start down under but it won't happen and I am sure Mr.S24 would again be confusing the tax man.
Many thanks again for your replies.
Glenda
Seriously, we wouldn't make a decision based entirely on the tax positions of both countries but for some reason we do have a complicated tax history
with self-employment, personal investment and inheritances all confusingly mixed together.Would be nice to 'ditch' some of this history with a 'fresh' start down under but it won't happen and I am sure Mr.S24 would again be confusing the tax man.
Many thanks again for your replies.
Glenda
Feb 27th 2004, 12:45 pm
#6
Banned
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 7,613
Re: Whose got the best tax system - Oz or NZ?
Originally posted by bondipom
There were some recent articles in the Australian about the NZ tax system being better than the oz one. I will try and dig it up. The problem is that depending on your profession you are more likely to earn less in NZ.
In Oz (I guess NZ is the same) there are hidden taxes every corner you turn. Stamp duty on housing and cars purchases, insurance taxes, airport noise levies, debits taxes on cheque accounts etc etc. There is no NI but there is the medicare levy.
A big difference with OZ is the negative gearing which is widely used to invest in property. Sounds great but you have to make a loss on the property to negatively gear it. The investors are hoping for capital gains.
It all depends on your earnings and your situation in life.
For Oz go to www.ato.gov.au
Finally taxes change and should not be the basis for your migration decision.
There were some recent articles in the Australian about the NZ tax system being better than the oz one. I will try and dig it up. The problem is that depending on your profession you are more likely to earn less in NZ.
In Oz (I guess NZ is the same) there are hidden taxes every corner you turn. Stamp duty on housing and cars purchases, insurance taxes, airport noise levies, debits taxes on cheque accounts etc etc. There is no NI but there is the medicare levy.
A big difference with OZ is the negative gearing which is widely used to invest in property. Sounds great but you have to make a loss on the property to negatively gear it. The investors are hoping for capital gains.
It all depends on your earnings and your situation in life.
For Oz go to www.ato.gov.au
Finally taxes change and should not be the basis for your migration decision.
NZ taxes are much kinder but you don't earn too much in the first place in most jobs.
