11 March 2005

Dr Cullen in Tax-Take Twisting

Grumpy as hell after looking at the huge wedge of tax taken out of his latest pay packet, Libertarianz leader Bernard Darnton's anger levels were raised to incandescence by Michael Cullen's latest glib fiscal lies.

"Either Cullen has no financial sense whatsoever, or he is deliberately trying to mislead the public. Either is possible," said Darnton. "His claim that the 'Working for Families' package will give us some of the lowest tax rates in the OECD is clearly ludicrous. How can increasing government spending decrease our tax rates? This is political spin - known in the real world as 'lying' - at its most blatant."

Cullen's claim is based on a peculiarity in the OECD calculation that picks out a single case (a couple with a single income of $41,778 per year and two children), counts welfare benefits against taxes, and uses this example to judge whether our tax rates are "high" or "low".

Darnton cheekily asked, "Why doesn't Cullen hike taxes even further and disburse all the extra goodies to this "average" family? Then he could claim that we have no tax at all!"

"If Cullen really wants to boast that New Zealand's tax rates are getting lower, why not actually make our tax rates lower? Stop the thieving - Libertarianz will."

ENDS

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