Two steps forward, one step back for taxpayers

Reacting to the Government’s bill to increase the trust tax rate to 39% passing its third reading today, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manager, Connor Molloy, said:

“National have just passed into law yet another of Labour’s tax increases. Rather than tackling the 84% increase in spending that every single one of their MPs campaigned against at the election, they have instead opted to hike taxes.

“While we congratulate the Government on reinstating interest deductibility for residential rental properties, and reducing the bright-line test to two years, they have simply reversed two of Labour’s tax grabs while implementing another. There is no doubt that we are in challenging economic times, but the answer is to cut wasteful spending, not hike taxes.

“The National-led Government must immediately work to significantly reduce spending in all non-frontline areas to create the fiscal headroom needed to not only deliver its promised tax relief but also reverse the recent tax hikes that they have so brazenly introduced.”