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Capital Gains Tax A Bad Idea
Monday, 19 November 2012, 11:33 am
Press Release: ACT New Zealand
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Capital Gains Tax A Bad Idea
A capital gains tax is an
inefficient envy tax that will do nothing to improve housing
affordability, ACT Leader John Banks said today.
“Only
Labour and the Greens would try to make something cheaper by
adding a tax to it,” Mr Banks said.
“Australia,
Canada, and the United States all have nationwide capital
gains taxes and all have had bigger national or regional
housing bubbles than ours.
“The biggest factor driving
up the cost of housing – especially in Auckland - is the
lack of land available for new residential housing. As
long as councils continue to artificially restrict the
supply of land via urban limits, land, and therefore houses,
will always be more expensive than they otherwise would. A
capital gains tax won’t change this.
“Government
should focus on making it easier to build more houses by
preventing artificial restrictions on land and removing red
tape around building permits, rather than taxing the houses
we already have,” Mr Banks
said.
ENDS
© Scoop Media

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