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The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Old May 23rd 2008, 2:10 am
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Default The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

So, the budget was announced yesterday and the Labour government here in NZ have finally spilt some cash back to the populace in the form of tax cuts.

Some commentators welcome the news, while others say it is too little and too late for the Labour government to even have a chance of staying in power at the general election later this year. Still others slate the government for cutting taxes when an interest rate drop was on the cards this September - it now looking unlikely before 2009.

I'm interested to hear what the thoughts are of people already here in NZ - considering that high taxes are a regular whinge on here.

The opposition leader has sarcasticly(sp?) congratulated Helen Clarke on giving everyone 'a block of family sized cheese' a week - a dig at the paucity of the budget.

My opinon? The budget means nothing to T and I. The $32/ week we get back between us has already been eaten up in fuel so we won't see an actual benefit of $ in the bank. In my own selfish way I'd rather they had not given anything and we could have looked forward to an interest rate drop that would have made my mortgage more affordable, the dollar weaker, and the chance of bringing UK pounds over at a decent exchange rate better. Even a .5% drop would make us more than $128/ month (the equiv of the tax cuts) better off.

What say you?
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Old May 23rd 2008, 2:39 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

The bulk of our mortgage is fixed for another three years so a tax cut is better for us.

At least they've done something I suppose.
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Old May 23rd 2008, 3:14 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

It should be better for me, but not til October by the looks of things!?!?!
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Old May 23rd 2008, 8:36 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

It's hardly a 'tax cut' is it? More like a correction of many years of over taxation due to the year on year unchanged thresholds. I still think they have a long way to go and should have listened to public opinion to abolish the lowest tier so that low earners don't have to pay tax on every cent earned. I still don't understand the resistance to abolish GST on everyday staple foodstuffs and necessities either.

So we're still being taxed on every single cent we earn and again on every cent we spend and I'm pleased John Key put it into perspective as blocks of cheese. I'd quite like some wine with mine too.
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Old May 23rd 2008, 9:43 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles
It's hardly a 'tax cut' is it? More like a correction of many years of over taxation due to the year on year unchanged thresholds. I still think they have a long way to go and should have listened to public opinion to abolish the lowest tier so that low earners don't have to pay tax on every cent earned. I still don't understand the resistance to abolish GST on everyday staple foodstuffs and necessities either.

So we're still being taxed on every single cent we earn and again on every cent we spend and I'm pleased John Key put it into perspective as blocks of cheese. I'd quite like some wine with mine too.
What Bo-Jangles said PLUS the cuts come in on 1 October, 2 weeks before the most likely date of the General Election I really resent the implication that we're all so gullible
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Old May 23rd 2008, 10:11 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Batty
What Bo-Jangles said PLUS the cuts come in on 1 October, 2 weeks before the most likely date of the General Election I really resent the implication that we're all so gullible
yes, certainly a tax-free allowance along the lines that the Maori Party was suggesting would be fairest and please can we take GST off food and other essentials - thanks...........from another person living under the yoke of high tax, high cost of living that is real life in NZ
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Old May 23rd 2008, 10:32 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

No Budget is ever good - you get a block of cheese in one hand, and petrol runs through the finger of the other hand.

No matter what country you live in a Budget has 2 things in common
1. They give you a penny
2. They take a dollar/pound/euro/ etc, etc

Use a 'whitebait to catch a snapper' (my kiwi twist on an old english saying)
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Old May 23rd 2008, 11:43 am
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Wink Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by lardyl
yes, certainly a tax-free allowance along the lines that the Maori Party was suggesting would be fairest and please can we take GST off food and other essentials - thanks...........from another person living under the yoke of high tax, high cost of living that is real life in NZ
Surely everyone should remember the lessons from the Thatcher era in the UK. (Geoffrey Howe first Tory budget 1979: I didn't even have a vote then by the way...something along the lines of 'I have done my best to ensure every family has some extra cash in their pockets - tax cuts - with which to pay the extra VAT!' VAT went up massively to 17.5% and has never come back down since) ..tax cuts mean very little, it is much better to get value for money services or as others have said take the poorest out of taxation altogether.
NZ must be very unusual in the Western World in charging tax on every dollar earnt...where exactly does it tell you that on NZIS pamphlets about life in NZ...it is a very inequitable policy.
In the UK, I can't for the life of me understand why Gordon Brown tried to abolish the lower tax bracket thing...what was he thinking?, well he will reap the reward as I suspect will the Government here in NZ - it won't be down to me though as just like when I was 17 I have no vote as I don't have PR .
Never forget the beauty of democracy is that we can actually change the Government if we really want to unlike the majority of the world's population. But please don't forget John Key is one of the wealthiest men in NZ....what does he have in common with your family? Maybe lots.
I had drunk 3 glasses of red wine before posting this so please don't take offence !
Dare I actually post this..that is the question?
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Old May 23rd 2008, 12:21 pm
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by luvwelly
Surely everyone should remember the lessons from the Thatcher era in the UK.........Dare I actually post this..that is the question?
At least Howe had a heart - well sort of - compared to Lawson and Lamont of course!

Ah the days of the cartoon with Lawson wiping his fat bum on "the poor".........voted in the general eletrion around that time but it did us no good as I lived in Kensigton & Chelsea!!

Whenever I see Nigella I can't get the image out of my mind from our student paper...............
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Old May 23rd 2008, 12:56 pm
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by lardyl
At least Howe had a heart - well sort of - compared to Lawson and Lamont of course!

Ah the days of the cartoon with Lawson wiping his fat bum on "the poor".........voted in the general eletrion around that time but it did us no good as I lived in Kensigton & Chelsea!!

Whenever I see Nigella I can't get the image out of my mind from our student paper...............
Didn't manage to successfully use my vote to elect an MP until Blair's 1997 landslide...That night my whole extended family spread across the UK were able to elect an MP..some had always been able to do it....some for the first time ever, others first time since 1979... .only thing I respect Howe for, is sticking the knife into Thatcher (cricket bats speech) but everyone said at the time that this was down to Elspeth (his wife) and that he actually along with the others was pretty infatuated with Maggie...go figure.

The funny thing is the older I get and the longer I live abroad, the less I care about politics...I just wish history were taught properly in schools so we'd stop going round in circles making the same mistakes and that Proportional Representation would be introduced in the UK to force politicians to work together and stop being confrontational. Nigella, I really like...don't know why...despite her dad and current husband!
Must get some sleep - lots of wine left in the bottle believe it or not!
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Old May 23rd 2008, 7:21 pm
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles
It's hardly a 'tax cut' is it? More like a correction of many years of over taxation due to the year on year unchanged thresholds. I still think they have a long way to go and should have listened to public opinion to abolish the lowest tier so that low earners don't have to pay tax on every cent earned. I still don't understand the resistance to abolish GST on everyday staple foodstuffs and necessities either.

So we're still being taxed on every single cent we earn and again on every cent we spend and I'm pleased John Key put it into perspective as blocks of cheese. I'd quite like some wine with mine too.
Not impressed, I've only been here 5 minutes and have already realised its to little to late. I am impressed though that the gov. gets away with charging GST in rates. A Tax on a Tax, that must have taken some pushing through.

Eh, hows that for a first post
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Old May 23rd 2008, 9:01 pm
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Bo-Jangles
It's hardly a 'tax cut' is it? More like a correction of many years of over taxation due to the year on year unchanged thresholds. I still think they have a long way to go and should have listened to public opinion to abolish the lowest tier so that low earners don't have to pay tax on every cent earned. I still don't understand the resistance to abolish GST on everyday staple foodstuffs and necessities either.

So we're still being taxed on every single cent we earn and again on every cent we spend and I'm pleased John Key put it into perspective as blocks of cheese. I'd quite like some wine with mine too.
Helen Clark's resistance to removing GST on food is because "it's too complex", what a cop out. So she will only do stuff that is simple then. I shall be voting for John Key.

In answer to the OP's question, no we aren't better off after the budget.
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Old May 23rd 2008, 10:46 pm
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by luvwelly
please don't forget John Key is one of the wealthiest men in NZ....what does he have in common with your family? Maybe lots.
I had drunk 3 glasses of red wine before posting this so please don't take offence !
Dare I actually post this..that is the question?
Key was brought up in a state home, with a single mother, who was a Labour voter. It IS a good marketing ploy but the fact remains that he did indeed pull himself up by his bootstraps although Labour choose to forget that part of it and try to focus people on what he has now - a classic case of Tall Poppyism.
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Old May 24th 2008, 12:38 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Batty
Key was brought up in a state home, with a single mother, who was a Labour voter. It IS a good marketing ploy but the fact remains that he did indeed pull himself up by his bootstraps although Labour choose to forget that part of it and try to focus people on what he has now - a classic case of Tall Poppyism.
Interesting....I don't know his background at all, I had just read that he seriously was one of the wealthiest people in NZ and that he had a background in Banking with Merrill Lynch....it's got to be in his favour with a disgruntled electorate that the proverbial silver spoon was missing!
I've always been suspicious of the sort of financial bonuses companies like ML pay to some employees..based on the market moving on their favour on
a deal.....it's a sort of monopoly capitalism.....while the vast majority of employees in Financial Services just had to work 'b***** hard' in the 1980s and 1990s.
I'm guessing he had to leave the country (NZ) to acquire some of this wealth which is interesting in itself as a reflection on the economic situation here now and historically. No one in the UK has to do that.
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Old May 24th 2008, 12:40 am
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Default Re: The NZ Budget - Was it good for you?

Originally Posted by Possum Chaser
Not impressed, I've only been here 5 minutes and have already realised its to little to late. I am impressed though that the gov. gets away with charging GST in rates. A Tax on a Tax, that must have taken some pushing through.

Eh, hows that for a first post
Good one - yes tax is probably one area where they'd do better to emulate the UK more.
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