24 October 2007

National trips over tax tests

John Key and Bill English are clearly worried that the Labour-led government is signalling personal tax cuts in next year’s Budget, Finance Minister Michael Cullen said today.

“In a press statement and in Question Time today, the National Party co-leaders were attempting to out-posture each other on tax cuts,” Michael Cullen said.

“The trouble is that in each attempt, English and Key are looking more and more confused and desperate. They are clearly having trouble coming to terms with the knowledge that Labour will be addressing personal tax cuts in next year’s Budget.

“First Bill English released a press statement arguing that the government could fund tax cuts by changing the way it accounts for debt.

“So we know that Bill English wants to borrow to pay for tax cuts. He wants to sell taxpayer-owned assets to pay for tax cuts. And now he suggests that we could pay for tax cuts by not properly accounting for bad debts in the Financial Statements of the Government.
“Arguing that we can fund tax cuts with money that does not exist is a new twist on an already very twisted National Party fiscal policy.

“Then we had John Key revealing a strange fascination with the four tests I have outlined for tax cuts. What Mr Key seems to be missing is that the tests are not simply questions of whether or not we can cut taxes.

“It is not a yes or no issue; it is a question of how cuts are designed and implemented. The truth is that Labour has delivered billions of dollars in tax relief, each time taking things like inflation and inequality into account, and each time we have been opposed by the National Party.

“John Key and Bill English may be starting to realise that they will not be able repeat their 2005 attempt to buy an election with a massive tax cut bribe.”

ENDS

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