Stop using tax system as a political football

The Institute of Chartered Accountants is calling on politicians to stop undermining the principles of New Zealand's tax system with self-serving tax proposals.

Institute tax director Craig Macalister was responding to National's announcement on charitable donations.

"In the absence of a robust cost-benefit analysis, National's proposal may well be without any tax policy merit. Certainly there are higher-priority tax policy issues that need to be addressed before considering removing the cap on charitable donations altogether.

"National said they will remove gift duty from donations to charitable organisations, but charitable organisations are already exempt.

"The Institute does not want to see the tax system weakened by policies that have little tax policy merit - from whatever side of the spectrum the policies come.

"Increasingly we are seeing both sides of the House using New Zealand's tax system for their own political ends, rather than as a tool to collect revenue for government expenditure.

"The Institute believes the public interest is best served by taxation laws and practices that impose the lowest amount of tax burden in an effective, efficient and fair manner. Using the tax system as a tool to enhance political interests is ultimately not in the wider public's best interest."

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