Hon Bill English
Opposition Finance Spokesperson

19 February 2000

Cullen’s damage control exercise unfair and complicated

The Finance Minister has come up with more unfair and complicated ideas to try to limit the damage from his ill-thought through tax laws, Opposition Finance Spokesperson Bill English said today.

“The Finance Minister’s plans to limit tax avoidance and to fix the big problems with his fringe benefit tax laws just make the whole thing worse.

“It doesn’t matter how much Dr Cullen tries to put his fingers in the dyke, his tax increases still promote tax avoidance.

“And his plans for fringe benefit taxes are complicated and will impose higher compliance costs on businesses.

“Businesses are asking the new Government for lower compliance costs and they need a simple tax system, not more complexity lumped on them.

“The trade off for his avoidance measures will be more complex form-filling for everyone.

“Any measures that increase fringe benefit taxes and taxes on superannuation savings will impact on some New Zealanders earning under $60,000 - breaking Dr Cullen’s credit-card promise that only those earning over $60,000 will face a tax increase.

“Over the next 3 years we can expect more of these clever complicated tax ideas which in the end only provide jobs for accountants and lawyers.”

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