KEY POINTS:
Auckland plastics manufacturer Murray Fenton wants the Budget to serve up business tax cuts and lower compliance costs, but he doubts the Government can do much about the high exchange rate.
Mr Fenton's call on company tax coincides with Finance Minister Michael Cullen's plans for a business tax package worth more than $1 billion a year, but the businessman knows his hope for personal tax cuts is just wishful thinking.
"Certainly [higher income] thresholds or trying to flatten tax would be a big incentive for a lot of people," Mr Fenton, the managing director of a successful, export-oriented factory in Morningside, said yesterday.
His family-owned company, Adept, which he founded in 1970, employs more than 100 people. Using its imported machines and raw materials, they produce plastic devices used in many applications from healthcare to abattoirs - as well as making the machine tools needed.
Most of the company's products are exported, either directly or as components of equipment made by other New Zealand manufacturers, like Fisher & Paykel Healthcare.
Many in the business community are concerned by the adverse effects of the high dollar on exporters as the Reserve Bank tries to cool the housing market through rising interest rates - but business is good for Mr Fenton.
"It goes against the general business feeling out there, but I have a fairly positive outlook for us personally. I'm pretty happy with where we are. I don't see things going wrong. We continue to improve."
The high dollar hurt financial margins on the direct-export side of his business, "but it's not beyond livable".
"Because we always try and get into a niche market or somewhere where we have got some advantage, price is not the total driving factor. It's really more about the quality of what we make and how well it suits what's required."
He believes there is a strong case for abolishing company tax, "because companies don't enjoy the profits. They either invest them or distribute them and then you pay tax on it.
"I think it would encourage businesses - apart from overseas-owned ones - without any real cost to the economy. I guess we would have grown easier and faster in the past if we had had lower taxes."
On the factory floor, Adept's day-shift manager, Ian McKenna, wants the Budget to cut business and personal-income taxes, GST - and child maintenance payments.
He had to pay about 17 per cent of his salary in maintenance for one child, which was "ridiculously" high.
"[We need] tax cuts towards petrol, food and every-day things. The prices are getting crazy and the average person isn't managing to survive.
"If business gets tax cuts, the people get a bit more cash in their pocket, the person on the floor."
