Posts Tagged ‘Tax’

Amazon cloud pays barely $1m tax on $391m revenues

Monday, March 18th, 2024

The 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
GST

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
taxpayers

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

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
tax

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, 2019

The 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

Reducing expenditure by 1 Billion will hurt the vulnerable

Tuesday, February 24th, 2015

Reducing expenditure by $1 billion per year for the next two years will limit the Government’s ability to make much-needed social investment in areas such as housing and family poverty, says Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand in a written submission to Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Select Committee. Caritas Director Julianne Hickey says the agency supports the Read more

Tax, the poverty gap and NZ

Friday, May 30th, 2014

At its simplest, the groundbreaking work by French economist Thomas Piketty proves no more than what we thought we already knew: the rich get richer. Whether the poor also get poorer is another matter. What would the taxi driver who took me across Beijing last year in a Toyota tricked out with three smartphones have Read more