On Land "lords", wealth taxes, and tax policies that increase poverty.
Tax-privileged Wealth Hoarding, the fastest route to riches?
I think I've addressed this before.
But my view is fundamentally about how we support worthwhile or socially valuable things.
In this case, Landlords versus Services for the public.
Landlords can now deduct the cost of their mortgage interest. Saving them millions (excuse me, 2.9 Billion) in a way that a regular homeowner certainly cannot.
That 2.9 billion comes out of taxes that could have paid for healthcare and education and safety and housing.
You believe it shouldn't have been there in the first place, and I understand and respect that, but do not agree.
If one believes hoarding houses is a productive investment for a society, then this government's law change is a good thing.
If one thinks there shouldn't be special financial benefits or perks for non-productive businesses that build wealth by holding and hoarding assets, (while simultaneously making those assets scarcer and harder for others to get), and creating legal and tax policy to enshrine this group of big owners, then one wouldn't really support tax deductibility for the mortgage interest costs of landlords.
Landlords, especially big corporate landlords, do not need any more financial advantages over normal homeowners. They have enough perks already.
Hoarding houses isn't a socially productive endeavour. It's become a game of Monopoly with a scarce resource. And negative real world applications for regular (ie, non-wealthy) people.
Real estate over the past 30yrs has been insanely and unsustainably profitable. I understand that it has made many landlords extremely wealthy and benefitted the people who service them.
But I do not see that as being worth the cost of having damaged an entire generation's ability to have secure housing, and pushed people into crushing housing debt or unaffordable rents.
One can call it rentier capitalism, or tax-privileged non-productive capital hoarding, or just an oligopoly, and ultimately it hurts our productive society.
I'd rather focus our policy and money on regular working class people (who really don't get the tax perks and benefits that big owners get) rather than landlords.
And in the end, this government has done a lot of things that harm public services. I think that harms the general public.
I want to see good public schools and good public healthcare and subsidised public housing.
So I will continue to comment when the government cuts healthcare, cuts education, cuts money for the disabled and other beneficiaries, in order to give 16 billion (Billion with a B) in tax cuts that are targeted to benefit the wealthiest. (Just look at a commenter today who said, that as a low income New Zealander, she gets a couple of dollars a week in tax cuts.) And a govt that gave 2.9 billion to landlords that we need not have given them. Out of public taxpayer money for which there was a desperate need, and many public and social programs that it could have benefited.
Now could you argue that some small mum and pop landlords, Or impoverished elderly landlords with a tiny rental, should be spared, and receive a carve-out.? Maybe. That's an argument worth making. And policy can always be tweaked to benefit the poorest and least privileged. But we both know that up until now, that is not how tax policy has been written (and that needs to change, too).
$2.9 Billion is estimated to be *twice* as much as it would have cost to give every New Zealander free basic dental Care. I will never in any scenario prefer that the money be spent to restore mortgage interest tax deductibility to landlords.
I will always go with putting the money to help peoples' rotting teeth every time.
Ultimately our tax policy is how we build (or maintain) a decent society.
#landlords #poverty #TaxTheRich @NZNationalParty @nzlabour @NZGreens #taxavoidance @TaxJusticeANZ