Charity to be encouraged, not demanded

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Gavin Maclean (May 10) obviously missed my point, along with the fact the percentage of tax our wealthiest New Zealanders pay is now being compared and criticised based on their unrealised capital gains over 2021, a year of fast-rising asset prices.

With rising interest rates, capital gains on property and shares can and have disappeared — in some cases turning into severe losses. Would the eventual amount of tax collected justify the administration involved and the loss of goodwill?

Tax is tax no matter how it is described — the common denominators are how it is collected and how wisely it is spent. How much tax is enough tax should not be confused with affordability.

No matter how much tax is collected it will still disappear down the gurgler, especially with an election looming.

Case in point was one of our esteemed ministers in an interview which questioned their department’s success and the only answers given were the successively larger amounts of money “they” had contributed to fix the problems, with no obvious results. One would be forgiven for wondering if it really was “their” money they were spending, would it have been so willingly contributed?

The question of percentages is purely the question of affordability, which must be balanced against the willingness of the taxpayer to contribute. Although we would all like to live in a world where we would have enough money and free time to indulge ourselves in whatever leisure pursuit that takes our fancy, should we not be encouraging those members of our community who devote their time to producing goods efficiently?

My point, if you wish to call it that, is not that our achievers should not contribute a bit extra. It is that instead of demanding more from them, would it not be better to show a bit of gratitude for what they do contribute?

As a point of interest there already seems to be offers from some of our “achievers” to voluntarily add more to the very substantial contributions they already make. This in my world is called charity and as such should be encouraged, not demanded.

Phil Newdick