A canter through some of the issues facing tax policies.
Read MoreTaxing Issues
capital gains tax
Taxing Questions About Taxing Housing
The government’s recent housing package may work; will it do enough?
Read MoreThe Sources of House Price Inflation.
Building more houses is not going to reduce house prices much (although it will help more people to be decently housed). The inflation driver is financial speculation based on leveraged borrowing. Until that is addressed, house prices will continue to boom.
Read MoreToo Near a Third Rail?
Traditionally Capital Gains Tax (CGT) has been politically untouchable. What does the handling of the issue tell us about the government’s political skills?
Read MoreCGT: A bad idea finally put to bed once and for all
Labour came to the only logical conclusion, with a little help from its friends. A Capital Gains Tax was little more than scratching an itch of its voting base, but would have done little for the country and the government
Read MoreJacinda Ardern thuds back to earth thanks to NZF's 'carefully generated torpedo' (CGT)
A humiliating defeat for Jacinda Ardern and Labour on the Capital Gains Tax is a reminder of how political power works and where the struggle for that power – and next year's election – really lies. Peters has swung the tax axe, with impunity
Read MoreTo Tax Capital Gains Or Not to Tax Capital Gains
Taxing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Read MoreCapital Gains Tax - now it's a numbers game
The spadework has been done and the Labour-led government now has to decide whether it can afford to walk through the door labelled 'Capital Gaints Tax'... and they need to know who will follow
Read MoreTime for true transparency (& I don't just mean tax)
The lack of transparency in this campaign is galling, but it's not just around tax and water. Under MMP we're voting for a coalition government and it's time politicians started acting like it
Read MoreFudging to the left of me, ghosts to the right:The lolly scramble election
As often as they say "let me be clear", politicians from both major parties this election are being anything but clear with voters. In a lolly scramble election, we deserve better
Read MoreWhy 'the housing crisis' only cuts so deep
Housing may be top of the pops as an election issue for some, but it's not as many as you might think... and it won't be as easy to fix as you might think
Read MoreBrave Bill's super pledge: But what about tax & health?
Touching the third rail of superannuation is a brave act by any government, but what about those other curly questions?
Read MoreLabour: Taking out the trash, hanging up new tinsel
It's a big day of transitioning for Labour, as it clears the decks for it's 'small targets' strategy. But one particular new policy caught my eye
Read MoreHuffing and puffing at houses: Third term straw
National has done something so that it looks like it's doing something about Auckland housing. But it reeks of third term-itis when you pretend you're fixing a problem when you're merely tinkering
Read MoreTaming the Auckland property market
The crazy Auckland property market needs reining in. Capital gains tax as a way of controlling house prices doesn't work overseas, but what about a land tax?
Read MoreNational needs a Capital Gains Tax - it's still borrowing to pay for tax cuts
The deficit-funded tax cuts that National gave the high income earners is still being paid for by borrowing.
When National won office at the end of 2008, they had a mandate to give median income earners a tax cut 'north of $50 a week'. At the time John Key made that promise he explicitly pledged not to increase GST to pay for it.
Read MoreTax cuts tangles
Tax has caused problems for both major parties at the sharp end of the election campaign, but the difference is that one party is using it to dominate the conversation with less than two weeks to go
Read MoreHousing affordability is about inequality
Increasing the supply of housing is only part of the solution. Demand needs to be shored up. That means changing incentives so that wage earners can compete with investors.
Read MoreRiveting argument about tax
I wrote a book! (I know, I am as surprised as you...) Casey Plunket from Chapman Tripp says parts of it suck. I say otherwise.
Read MoreClever politics leave voters in a vacuum
Fear and greed may be the motivating emotions in the market place, but information is the life-blood of democracy. The voters of 2011 need a transfusion before they visit the polling booth on Saturday.
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