Tax amendment act wrong —Mr Bolger

Press, 19 September 1984, Page 27

Tax amendment act wrong —Mr Bolger

PA Wellington A former National Cabinet Minister, Mr Jim Bolger, has said that the Income Tax Amendment No. 2 Act had been vzrong and should be repealed in is present form. It was no secret that the bill was politically damaging to the National Party, he said in an address to the party’s Rodney electorate. “Many of our supporters opposed the law because it placed very serious financial pressures on individuals who had done no more than organise their affairs within the law.

“Further, it was unacceptable insofar as it operated in certain circumstances in a retrospective manner, even if technically it may not have been retrospective legislation,” he

said. Although the amendment set out to achieve what earlier amendments had sought — to control what many saw as unfair tax avoidance — “its impact on the property market was severe and in general terms it ran counter to the National Party’s commitment to a property-owning democracy.” Although the amendment act was wrong, “and in its present form should be repealed,” it had served one useful purpose, he said. “The political backlash from it should forcefully remind all in central Government that there is a limit in the level of taxation that is acceptable and a limit to the intrusion in the management of individual citizens affairs that is acceptable.”