ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that ACT’s webpage set up to stop Michael Cullen’s retrospective tax grab on schools and tourist operators was proving a big hit.

“We’ve been inundated with calls complaining about this tax.

“It’s clear now that Michael Cullen has a real fight on his hands. The business community is up in arms over this tax grab. Some schools and some tourist operators have had refunds of millions of dollars; others are yet to receive a thing. They are now going to miss out.

“Some taxpayers have even received IRD cheques for their refunds only to have the government dishonour them. They are now going to miss out.

“The retrospective tax grab is dishonest and unfair. I believe the government is going to have to go back to the drawing board on this one.

“The only reason for this $200 million tax grab is to plug the holes in this week’s Budget. That’s a very bad reason for making a new tax retrospective.

ACT’s Fightback webpage is as follows: www.act.org.nz/action/taxgrab

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>