Labour's Attack on Shewan Extraordinary

13 APRIL 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Labour should put up or shut up with their attacks on John Shewan says Jordan Williams, the Executive Director, of the Taxpayers’ Union. Responding to Labour’s attacks on Mr Shewan and his previous professional engagements, Mr Williams says:

“John Shewan is one of the most professional, competent and respected tax experts in New Zealand. He is likely to bring precisely the calm head into this debate which is needed post the Panama paper revelations.”

“Many opposition politicians are fuelling false rhetoric that the Panama papers suggest that wealthy New Zealanders have been dodging tax, or that New Zealand is missing out on tax revenue it is entitled to. Neither of these is true.”

“Here at the Taxpayers’ Union, we agree that trust disclosure is an issue worth looking into. However, if, as is often the case, New Zealand is being used by foreigners because of our ease of doing business, rule of law, and reliable courts, we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water and impose new red tape just because a minority of foreigners have abused the system. The balance between enough disclosure to prevent tax evasion and respecting legitimate privacy concerns can be difficult.”

“New Zealand doesn’t tax income derived overseas by people who are not residents. This is sensible, uncontroversial and led to the principled approach of determining a trust’s tax residence based on where the seller is resident. Ironically, this was introduced to prevent New Zealanders from using trusts to evade tax.”

“In 2003, then Minister of Finance, Dr Michael Cullen, was quite happy to parade Mr Shewan’s work on the Private Sector Liaison Group on Research and Development. Rather than simply attack Mr Shewan, perhaps Labour could tell us what’s changed or suggest names of people they consider better qualified to lead a review.”

ENDS

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