This morning a petition signed by almost 13,000 people calling on the Government to abandon plans for corporate tax cuts was delivered to Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis.

A recording of the online delivery event is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIl7Ro0CR3c

Speakers include:

TJA chair Glenn Barclay - 1'50"

"At a time when public services are being decimated, we can't afford a loss of revenue."

Economist Ganesh Nana - 4'25"

"Why are we trying to bribe people and companies to come here? If we're getting people to come here because we're paying them, they're probably coming for the wrong reasons."

ActionStation Director Kassie Hartendorp - 10'28"

"It strikes us as particularly unjust that the companies that are often in the position to pitch in to our society are the very places that the government is taking away that responsibility from."

Q+A - 15'15"

The petition was sent to the Prime Minister and Finance Minister with the following message:

To the Right Hon. Chris Luxon and Hon.Nicola Willis,

Dear Prime Minister Luxon and Minister Willis,

It is my pleasure to present to you a petition supported by nearly 13,000 people calling on you to abandon any plans to cut the corporate tax rate and instead maintain (and preferably increase) the collective pool of resources that enable us to provide things like decent public healthcare, education and infrastructure for our communities.

We, and many others, have seen your comments in February that you are considering cuts to the Corporate Tax rate as part of the Budget and this prompted us at Tax Justice Aotearoa to start this petition asking you to ‘Say NO to Corporate Tax Cuts’. Collecting so many signatures in a little over three weeks is a significant achievement in such a short period of time and it is an indication of public concern about your plans.

Cutting the amount that corporates contribute will not stimulate economic growth, but it will reduce the resources that we need to ensure our public services can provide us with timely and decent care and support. Reducing the corporate tax rate by just 1 percentage point would result in a loss of around $650m in revenue and you could do a lot with that money to make New Zealand a better place for all.

Since the petition was initiated, we have seen indications that the Budget might contain a special targeted rate reduction for corporates involved in infrastructure projects. Tax Justice Aotearoa would oppose such measures. The failure to build the infrastructure we need is not due to companies making too little profits on it, but from insufficient funding by successive governments, including the present one.

Corporates such as the banks, power companies and supermarkets have been making record profits in recent years - we should be looking at ways in which they can contribute more, not less.

Naku noa, Na

Glenn Barclay

Chairperson, Tax Justice Aotearoa

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