NOTHING

I was most of the way through writing a long post on tax but got distracted and couldn't be bothered finishing it.

Hey! Here's the draft that I was writing - it's not complete but you probably wouldn't be arsed reading the whole thing anyway:

Draft .... A fixed term savings account of ours rolled over this week and I looked at the interest rates offered by our bank and didn't fall off my chair. While the new rate was lower than the old one it was still in the positive which is a plus and certainly would be for many European savers. I pressed the button to lock in for another 9 months - full term that Robert and his gang, the Catholic Church would approve of.

I didn't check out the dazzling rates that precious metals, cryptocurrency, the AI industry, IT companies and anything that Donald Trump has his greasy mitts in offered as I'm risk averse. I'm also I like to think, moral and am governed by in an in-built Protestant guilt which is strange given that I was baptised and educated as a Catholic. Go figure.

Protestant guilt apparently is an internal sense of moral failure or anxiety rooted in historical Protestant teachings about individual accountability, divine judgment, and the work ethic - or that's what a Google search uncovered.

Catholic guilt, on the other hand is tied to institutional confession and penance as they have been told all their life that they are sinners. Protestant guilt places the individual directly before God without a mandatory ritual of absolution. I think I prefer the Protestant guilt thing even though both concepts are moot because I 'm an atheist and don't believe in a god and think all this religion stuff is nonsense.

Anyway, I digress. On the bank transfer form a default tax rate was highlighted of 17.5%. I guess this is my tax rate as I only have superannuation as income. I'm certain though that previous bank interests have been taxed at a much higher rate of 33% which is the Old Girl's rate seeing that she is a salary earner. I guess the fiscally sensible thing for me to do is to ensure that, at tax return time, that bank interest is declared and taxed at my rate not hers. This got me to investigate what the tax situation is in New Zealand and what it will be in the near future.

I have no real issues with taxation. Public services have to be paid by taxation. Taxes, when run equitably benefit most people especially middle and low earners and help to mitigate income inequality.

Sensibly calculated and applied progressive taxation is how society provides those services (health, education, social welfare, policing etc) and to invest in the country's future prosperity.

I'm not one of those aluminium foil hat-wearing people who bizarrely oppose taxes, even if they benefit from a stronger economy and free or subsidised services and infrastructure. I'm not a rich or super rich person either and suspect that many of these oppose taxation and have batteries of accountants looking for loopholes on their part and or using safe havens for their wealth.

What's so hard about understanding that and who would have a problem with it?

Well, blow me down, the National-led government which generally caters to the more affluent percentage of New Zealand wants to get rid of many taxes for example:

•  the bed tax which is supposed to support tourism. National won't support this anymore and are leaving it to ratepayers to fund improvements to tourism infrastructure but ...
• ... the Luxon government is imposing a 4% cap on rates increases ( below the current rate of inflation) which means local councils will be unable to raise revenue to undertake improvements....
  

                               ..... Abandoned