Taxation

Press, 25 November 1982, Page 20

Taxation

Sir,—The Mickey Mouse nature of the tax laws resulting from the increases on many low incomes in the last New Zealand Budget never were . more clearly shown than in the statement by the Minister in charge of the Inland Revenue Department (“The Press,” November 23). In relation to the taxation of the earnings of school pupils, it gives diametrically opposite instructions in two successive paragraphs. It is difficult to know whether Mr Falloon has not done his homework or whether he can’t understand the new rules. The Australian Budget raised the personal exemption to sAust4s9s. In New Zealand we ’have forgotten what a personal exemption is since it was eliminated some years ago; but it means that from the bottom portion of every income that would not be taxed in Australia the Muldoon administration takes something like a billion dollars in tax even after allowing for the young family and similar rebates. — Yours, etc., TOM MILES. November 23, 1982.