11 DECEMBER 2017

Tax indexation just as important as welfare increases

Judge Andrew Becroft's comments on TVNZ's Q&A that child welfare payments should be indexed to inflation apply just as much to tax thresholds says the Taxpayers’ Union.

New Zealand Taxpayers' Union Economist, Joe Ascroft, says, "Allowing taxes to increase as inflation moves households into higher tax brackets, means working households have their incomes eroded every year.”

"Indexing child welfare payments to inflation, but not adjusting tax rates, makes entering the workforce even less appealing than it already is."

"Children who grow up in households with inter-generational welfare dependency tend to have worse lives. Increasing welfare payments, while allowing tax rates to creep up, will worsen the problem of welfare dependency, not make it better."

ENDS

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