As fast as I ask will National have the guts to move to a flat tax system they rule it out.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/2958390/No-flat-tax-PM

The Government will not introduce a flat tax system despite Treasury advice in support of one, Prime Minister John Key says.

The working group and Treasury were working on similar ides and the Government would consider a wide range of issues, he said.

Cabinet will discuss all those issues but “there’s not going to be a flat tax system”.

So what is the point in getting Treasury to consider all options and issues but ruling out one of the best ideas before cabinet has discussed it? A flat tax system is not some big scary monster, it is a simple system that just makes sense.

“We also need to make sure we put together a system that isn’t regressive and that is fair,” he said.

Finance Minister Bill English said the tax working group and Treasury were looking at “all sorts of models” but the Government was “certainly not considering a flat tax”.

Those looking at the tax system were told to “rule nothing out” and “by the looks of it they’re doing a pretty thorough job”, Mr English said.

So Treasury is not to rule anything out, but National can before even discussing it. And they want a fair system, but the most fair system of them all a flat tax system is rule out. Is National doing some double speak here?

Labour deputy leader Annette King said her party was opposed to a flat tax because it raised questions about what other taxes would have to be raised to cover expenses.

“But I have to ask every time Treasury puts out a suggestion they are working on, it is knocked back either by Mr English or by Mr Key.

“Why are they wasting taxpayers’ money with Treasury officers working away on policies they don’t intend to implement and they rule out every time they are announced?”

Labour have hit the issue on the head here. They may not support it, but at least they have the sense to wait and see what the all the issued considered are. This is a very bad move by National, they are trying to stop debate on a potentially controversial topic, but by doing so they are opening a can of worms and will piss off their more right-wing supporters (and probably Act as well).

Tags: Labour Party, Money, National Party, Tax

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 13th, 2009 at 11:09 am and is filed under Comment and Opinion, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.