John Titchener once volunteered for a wide range of organisations. The energetic recent retiree was involved with Rotary, the Alternatives to Violence Project, the Community Organisations Grants Scheme, and his church among others. But he has now stepped down from virtually all his charitable work because of what he sees as discrimination against volunteers by Read more
Posts Tagged ‘Tax’
Abandoned houses could be the key to unlocking the housing crisis
Thursday, May 30th, 2024The Green Party believes that a tax on homebuyers is needed to stop houses from lying unused. Green Party spokesperson for housing Tamantha Paul said that houses shouldn’t be left empty. “If there’s a house and it’s safe to live in, then we should fill those houses. It’s crazy that houses would sit abandoned when Read more
Amazon cloud pays barely $1m tax on $391m revenues
Monday, March 18th, 2024The Government has set in place a new “cloud first” policy requiring all its agencies to store their information on the cloud. “Do not invest in on-premise ICT infrastructure unless information meets specific criteria,” chief executives are told. Ideally, it says, information classified as “restricted” should be hosted in a New Zealand-based data centre, where Read more
Cutting GST on fresh produce won’t help those most in need – a targeted approach works better
Monday, June 19th, 2023
Food prices are rising at the fastest rate in almost four decades, with fruit and vegetables up more than 22 percent in the past year. As often happens during a cost of living crisis, there have been calls to remove the goods and services tax (GST) from fresh produce. But is this actually a good Read more
Taxpayers should be free to choose to pay for abortions
Monday, May 29th, 2023
If women are free to choose whether to have an abortion, taxpayers should be free to choose if they contribute taxes to fund their choice. In a recent statement, the pro-life advocacy group Right to Life argues that while taxpayers have a moral obligation to contribute their taxes, they should not be obligated to fund Read more
Wealth tax and negative interest hit retired and poor
Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Retired and poor New Zealanders are most likely to feel the impact of negative interest rates. Increased inequality and a worsening of the wealth gap are likely outcomes of the Official Cash Rate (OCR) falling below zero, warn ASB economists. The ASB warns that from a longer-term perspective zero interest rates could actually create wider Read more
So please: Tax us. Tax us. Tax us. It is the right choice
Thursday, July 16th, 2020
Two New Zealand rich listers are among the first signatories on a ‘Millionaires for Humanity’ letter urging governments across the world to raise the tax for the wealthy amidst the COVID-19 crisis. The Warehouse Group founder Sir Stephen Tindall and Hire Things founder Peter Torr Smith are two of 174 millionaires to have signed the Read more
Church wants tax case to go to Supreme Court
Thursday, February 21st, 2019The case against 20 clergy of the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa for failing to file tax returns may be heading to the Supreme Court after a motion by the defence this week. Read more
Budget harder for low income households
Monday, October 1st, 2018
The price of crude oil has risen sharply. It will increase the cost of living, joining a range of other unavoidable purchases. For households on lower incomes, the weekly budget just got much harder. It is a good time to look closely at household budgets and seek help if the budget doesn’t balance. International crude Read more
Communist tax plan upsets religious groups
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
A Communist Party plan to tax the compensation the state must pay religious groups in the Czech Republic is upsetting church leaders. Seventeen religious denominations – Christian and Jewish – are legally entitled to recover or be compensated for assets confiscated during the post-World War II Cold War. As the largest denomination, the Catholic church Read more