February 24, 2019
New tax rules need to protect Māori development
The head of the tax working group, Sir Michael Cullen says more consultation may be needed with Māori to ensure changes don’t impact the economic prospects of Māori and iwi collectives.
The group’s report released on Thursday includes proposals for a broad-ranging capital gains tax as well as environmental taxes such as congestion charging, waste levies and charges for water extraction.
Sir Michael says some of those things will impact on Māori, and different rules may be needed.
"In some cases we can probably deal with some of the issues through the general rules but we certainly are saying we do not want to act in in a way we make it difficult for collectively-owned land to continue to provide support for Māori and for Māori to be able to continue to expand their economic and social base," he says.
Sir Michael says he does not expect a capital gains tax to have a major impact on the housing market, because the problems of housing supply and affordability have multiple causes that need to be addressed.
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