Category Archives: Tax

Tax

The Goode tax plan

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Suppose that you have $100 in your pocket, and you want to buy an $80 widget. So you head off to the widget store. You plan to buy an $80 widget and return home with the widget and $20 change.

Suppose that on the way to the widget store, you are intercepted by one of the government’s mobile tax agents. The agent demands 20% of the money in your pocket at gunpoint. You arrive at the widget store with only $80. Enough to purchase the $80 widget. You return home with your new widget but no change.

Suppose, instead, that on the way to the widget store, inflation occurs. The government prints 25% more money to pay for its latest government spending spree. There is now a 25% increase in the money supply, but no corresponding increase in real wealth. As a result, prices rise across the board by 25%. The price of the $80 widget goes up to $100. You arrive at the widget store with $100, just enough to purchase the $100 widget. You return home with your new widget but no change.

From your point of view – that of a wealth producer and consumer – what is the real difference between these two scenarios? Financially speaking, none whatsoever. In either case, you get a widget and no change.

From the government’s point of view – that of a wealth plunderer and parasite – what is the real difference between these two scenarios? Financially speaking, none whatsoever. In the first case, the government gets your $20. In the second case, the government prints $25 that has the same spending power as $20 did pre-inflation.

But there is a difference, of course. It’s the difference between, on the one hand, a central bank and a printing press and, on the other hand, an entire government department with more offices, officers and orifices than you can shake a stick at.

The Goode tax plan is to get rid of the Inland Revenue Department altogether.

The Goode tax plan is for the government to raise revenue by printing it.*

I’m no economist. Perhaps there’s something seriously amiss with my tax plan. Perhaps I overlooked to consider the adverse consequences of my tax plan on savers and those on fixed incomes. Or something. Feel free to educate me in the comments. But my tax plan is based on a premise that I expect no one to deny, viz., that inflation is a tax.

(*Of course. I put forward my tax plan only as a transitional measure. I don’t actually think the government should be in the business of taking money or printing it. Taxation should be phased out. I’m a libertarian, duh.)

Alcohol, Freedom, Jihad on Drugs™, Libertarianz, Live Like It's Legal, Tax

The 4:20 tax plan

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Every man and his dog has a tax plan.

Here’s mine.

1. A $20,000 tax-free income threshold
2. A flat rate of 20% on all personal income over $20,000.
3. A flat rate of 20% on all corporate income.
4. GST to be phased out and replaced with an excise tax of 20% on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis.

I call it the 4:20 tax plan. With a name like that, how could it not get the wasted vote?!

Mark II, National Party, Peter Dunne, Righteous Rants, State Rape, Tax, Tyranny, Venting Spleen

Te Tari Tāke

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I meant to vent spleen today re Peter Dunne in his capacity as Associate Minister of Health, but I didn’t get around to it. So let’s have atheist Mark Hubbard venting spleen re Peter Dunne in his capacity as Minister of Revenue instead.

I particularly liked Mark’s post below. He’s since written a couple more on the same theme here and here. Be sure to visit his blog.

Taxing Language: A Question for the Politicians – Fair: What Do You Mean?

Liberty and freedom are two proud words that have been executed – as in ‘taken out’ – from the political lexicon: they were frog marched and stood before a wall of blank minds, then forcibly blindfolded, and shot, with the whimpering staccato of ‘inequality’ and ‘fairness’ resounding over and over. And not only did this atrocity go unreported by journalists in the mainstream media, they were in the firing squad.

Statists of all hues have taken to the word ‘fairness’ with the glee Chris The Fist Trotter has to the use of state violence, in order to make the theft that is compulsory taxation seem a little, well, fairer.

The slanderous union economist, for example, Bill (unfortunately named) Rosenberg, not letting facts get in the way of persecuting a minority, yet again, interrupted his Chardon-day, yesterday, to emote:

“… How many of the rich list pay a fair tax?”

And if Messrs Dunne and English had a blog label cloud pinned to their foreheads, ‘fairness’ would be in a huge font, over-clouding everything else. Just Google ‘fairness’, ‘tax’, and either of their names and you’ll get pages of quotes.

And so my point. I have a simple question for these three men: what does fairness, in relation to taxation, mean? Plus what is a fair amount of tax, please? How do you derive it, both in terms of the amount taken, and morally? Explain it to me, because I truly don’t understand. There is nothing in any of our taxing acts to give any guidance on this, and yet going on your constant utterances, taxpayers are, daily, being crucified on it.

In the first instance I want a generic principle, clear enough to write into tax law, which shouldn’t be too hard, given you write so much law in the fortress of legislation. And secondly, or rather, ‘but’ secondly, to test this law, for once, before foisting it on us, please interpret it, here, in relation to the below three scenarios.

Taxpayer 1:

Single man, twenty three years old, lower order contract worker putting in seventy hour weeks, earned $186,000 last year. He’s doing it hard, on himself, because with cow prices reaching $2,500 his ability to be able to buy his first herd, and so be in a financial position to propose to his girlfriend, and start a family, is looking more and more remote.

Taxpayer 2:

Family, three children at state school, both parents working to bring in a total of $60,000 per annum, only, to the household. They can’t afford a house in the current market, and with the rental squeeze due to government making it unattractive to be a private landlord, they’re having to pay $750 a week rent for a sub-standard house in Auckland, after which, when they pay for the essentials they have no pay left: indeed, all their credit cards are maxed out.

Taxpayer 3:

Family, two children, dad’s a banker, earning $200,000 per annum, mum stays home to look after their new baby, plus their first child has genetic disease meaning he’ll never be able to look after himself, so mum has taken on that job, for life. The couple have paid over half a million dollars over the last two years traveling around the world to see specialists, for operations, and so forth, and have had to re-mortgage their Fendalton home, twice, to the maximum amount possible. Husband is having to put huge hours in to make it all work financially, and with so much stress and little time together, the marriage is floundering.

So, for the statists, surely this should be easy: please write in the comments the interpretation of the tax fairness law you write for us, in relation to these individuals?

Finding it hard? Well, assuming intelligence on your behalf, you should find this impossible. And that’s even before I move to my position on tax which is not to use the word fair, but unjust. I wonder if we should ring Her Majesty for some input, given, in a story as stunning as it was alarming, the UK’s IR, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, expect school children not only to be able to define what is a fair amount of tax, but, taking their state to its Orwellian conclusion, expect them to dob in adults who don’t play fair on a playground where the biggest bully is the state itself. Politicians should at least admit there is nothing ‘fair’ about tax in any of the above instances, or period: tax is an arbitrary imposition of the state, enforced with the full draconian powers of the police state. That’s the truth. Let’s at least acknowledge the implied violence and immoral act on which our society is based, because from that, we may ultimately find a kinder way to live our lives, which would be a society that constitutionally protects the smallest of its minorities: the individual, and particularly from what is now the biggest abuser of an individual’s right to be left alone – the state.

As always, thanks, Mark, for giving your blessing to copying your content here at Eternal Vigilance.

Christian Libertarianism, Compulsion, Constitution, Democracy, Local Government, Nanny State, Pink Floyd, Regulation, Slashing Bureaucracy, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Tyranny

Comparing Hamilton City’s Dire straits to Bankrupt City of Stockton.

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The Californian city of Stockton is set to become the largest US city in decades to go bust.

Mayor Ann Johnston told the city council which endorsed the move it was “the most difficult and heart-wrenching decision” they had ever faced.

As has become the Norm these days Stockton Officals attempt to pass the blame upon the ‘Global market collapse’ rather than their own gross overspending, Yet a quick search of the Net reveals the same old story of Grand scheming…Heavy handed Government.
They got into debt building and running Parking buildings… which as usual was *a fail*… just like it was for the Hamilton City Council.
The City of 300 000 carries a debt of $700 Million.
Which, by comparison ought to show Hamiltonians just how grievious is their own situation being a Population of 152641 and city debts of $400 million
When the population of Stockton and US exchange rate is factored, This ruffly equates to an equivelent debt of $450 million to Hamiltons $400 Million.
We will be there by the next Local Body elections!
Thus We can safely say Stockton was brought to it’s knees by the same Pig headed Political Folly as has plagued Western democracy in General… including Hamilton New Zealand.
If only Hamiltonians had listened to me!If only The Waikato Times had been able to grasp the reality of what I was saying, and given me equal time with the other candidates in their paper to present my arguements to the Ratepayers of Hamilton!
We would not be facing such a finacial catastrophy as we do now!
Tim Wikiriwhi
Libertarian Independent.
Hamilton West.

Local Government, Nanny State, Slashing Bureaucracy, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Uncategorized, Vote Wikiriwhi!

Reality Punches Socialist’s In The Face!

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Shane Cameron swallows Reality pill. Dont Dis the Tuaminator!

It is interesting how with the process of time reality has a way of exposing Ignorance and folly, and bring unpopular truths into the light.
It is even more interesting to watch the various ways the Tyrants and Sheeple respond.
Collectivist Communism Bankrupted the Soviet Union, which was a reality pill not wasted upon the Chinese Communists, who responded by modifying their Economy to align more closely with Western socialist democracies which have a modicum of Free enterprise, and private property, yet in reality is not ‘Free’ at all, but heavily regulated, and Taxed by a large, powerful, and meddlesome State.
Yet the Chinese now have discovered they have not prevented the collapse of their Regime, but merely postponed it by a few decades, as the economic model they assimilated from the West is likewise fatally flawed.
The West now Reels under the Teachings of Painful Reality… that their model of socialism is also ‘unsustainable’ … it just takes a little longer than full blown Communism to implode.
This fact is proven by the massive debt crisis which Socialist democracies now face, having been driven into the ground by elected Big spending Anti-freedom, Anti-Capitalists. All the roits in the world cannot alter the truth. Socialism is a failure.

The bankrupt reality of Powerful, Big spending, heavy handed Socialism with their Grand Collectivist delusions and Micro management of society holds true across the board, and has now forced a heavily indebted Hamilton City council into ‘austerity mode’ Which Council downsizing and selling off assets ( ‘Austere decade ahead’ Waikato Times Saturday June 9 pg A5).
‘Indoor Rec Center… No Funds.
Municipal Pools… closed.
Pensioner Flats… for sale.
YMCA… For Sale.
IBIS/NOVOTEL… For Sale.
COUNCIL SERVICES… $6M CUT.’

The current crisis is exactly as I predicted.
I have spent the last decade campaigning for council, warning the people of Hamilton that Bankruptcy and pain was comming to town like an inexorable Juggernaut.
During elections I told Mayoral Julie Candidate Hardacre that she would have to reneg on all her big Ideas and Campaign promises, yet this did not deter her from continuing to pedal her ‘popular’ delusions, and thus she was elected upon Fraud, folly and worst of all an orchestrated ignorance.
Mrs Hardacres fantasies received full Media support, while my Economic and Political truths were marginalized, and treated as whack (Except by the Local Paper Hamilton News, whom have always done a fantastic job of presenting alternative perspectives thanks to the efforts of Editor Colin Vincent)..
I was left out of the political debates, perverting democracy by keeping many voters in the dark about the real state of affairs faced by the H.C.C and the necessary alternative direction which I represented.
Most voters were not aware of the choice that I represented as a candidate.


Time is up!
The Apocalypse has arrived!

Now though I continue to be ignored by the Media, The truth of My Prophecy cannot not be ignored anymore than Gravity can be.
The Waikato Times article mentioned above shows that many of my unpopular policies are now being
forced upon the council…against their will. The travesty is that they are now being implemented by the charlatans who got elected by promising to spend more, not less.
It is a real pity that the Media and Hamiltonians did not heed my warnings as I could have implemented a systematic program of reform when things were not so dire and thereby would have been able to get better returns on asset sales, during a better economic climate… unlike the ‘fire sale’ that we must now endure.

I am still awaiting a knock on the door from the Political Journalist of the Waikato Times who ought to be aware of these important facts I am presenting here, and interested in getting the truth out to their readers… the voting public so they may make better choices next election.
It is an interview which will never happen.
I would also love to see an article In The Waikato Times which reviews all the Campaign promises of the current bunch in council, putting to them the hard questions of how they expected to fulfill their pledges when there was no money to do so? Did they make their pledges out of an extreme ignorance?
If so they expose the naked reality that they are unfit to be in council.
Did they make their promises simply to fool the voters and get elected?
If so they exposed their Political dishonesty, and they ought to be thrown out of Office. This is something which Minister of Local Government Rodney Hide failed to do. Tits on a Bull I say!

Thus like all socialist democracies Hamilton wallows in debt. A circumstance arrived at via Ignorance, Delusions, Lies, Complicity. All foreseeable. All preventable. Yet this is a tale still kept in the dark like a dirty secret because no one wants to admit the truth!
The Libertarians have been right all along and that we now wallow in the mire is the price we must pay because no one wanted to face Reality.
Socialist Big Government does not work.
Tim Wikiriwhi
Libertarian Independent.
Hamilton West.

http://www.elections2010.co.nz/2010/candidates/tim-wikiriwhi
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0709/S00333.htm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0608/S00143/redman-running-hamilton-into-red.htm

If only Hamiltonians had listened to me. Your 38 million dollar mistake!

http://www.sustainablewaikato.org.nz/2010_Local/q/HCC%20Tim%20Wikiriwhi_complete.pdf

http://www.indymedia.org.nz/article/68529/brothel-manager-nominates-new-mayor-hami

Conspiracy of Silence.

http://www.indymedia.org.nz/article/68765/charity-or-not-charity-freedom-vs-social

Compulsion, Mark II, National Party, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Tyranny

2012 Budget highlight

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Yes, I know. Last Thursday was the day for the pundits to comment on the National government’s 2012 Budget. But I can think of few things more soporific than stimulus packages or more boring than budgets, and last week’s Budget was even duller than usual. David Farrar has a summary of 2012 Budget highlights. See what I mean?

But there is one aspect of the 2012 Budget—not mentioned in Farrar’s list—that should be highlighted. It’s the $78.5 million Finance Minister Bill English allocated to IRD audit. Thanks to atheist Mark Hubbard over at Life Behind the Iron Drape for bringing this to my attention. Here’s his blog post in full.

Zero budget – no. Nazi budget -yes.

In New Zealand’s 2012 budget, Bill English just grew the fascist thug state by an extraordinary extent. The money allocations to health and education sounded like a Labour Party lolly scramble; there is in this budget only the further expansion of the state. As Clive James said of the Soviets, they thought they had free health care, but it ended up costing them everything they had. Well English just imported that hollow ethos to New Zealand. Significantly, the first money allocation in Herr English’s speech was a huge $78.5 million to IRD audit. Now move your eyes up and read my blog by-line again. Read it, the paragraph in italics: understand what is funding every other allocation to the state. $78.5 million into the systematic persecution of this country’s productive, who, unlike this government, haven’t lifted a finger to initiate force on their fellow man.

Bill English, please take this personally, you are a true National Socialist: you are my enemy, as you are the enemy of all free men. I suggest you wear a brown shirt to Parliament from now on. I’m too angry to write anything further. When will there be the Western Spring, to wrest our liberty back?

Visit Mark’s blog to read his blog by-line. Here’s his disclaimer.

Disclaimer: If you pay anything other than the correct amount of tax – as hard as that can be to calculate under our mess of tax law – then you’re a bloody idiot. The state will squash you like a bug.

The Western Spring may be sooner than we think. That the State is allocating an additional $78.5 million to the task of squashing tax defaulters like bugs suggests that socialism is already starting to run out of other people’s money.

Compulsion, Democracy, Freedom, Hell, Nanny State, Propaganda, Slashing Bureaucracy, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Totalitarianism, Tyranny

Spawn of Satan… The Forked Tongue of John Key.

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Who ever believed John Key when he promised to deliver a budget surplus by 2015?
Only Chumps!

Via spin in the media we are told John Key now says that the global meltdown in Europe threatens to ‘delay’ his promises of a Budget surplus … Yet I say *This is Bullshit* fit only to be swallowed by dung beetles!
Why?
Because we all knew there was a major meltdown in progress at the very moment he made his Bullshit claims!
This Crisis is not a new Crisis… it’s the same crisis!
*Key and the National party are a bunch of dirty Politic-ing LIARS!*
Who voted for these vermin?
While I think a Key/ English zero-increase in expenditure is much better than a Labour/Shearer Big spend up ‘stimulus’… The truth is debt will still be increasing at the current criminal rate! (400 million per week).

Wail o ye Pitiful souls!
What? You say that you were forced to choose between The greater or lesser evils?
*YE FOOLS!*
The truth is you have had Honest Libertarians on your Ballots for over a decade!
Yes! I refer to those Pesky Seers of ‘Economic Hellfire and Socialist damnation’ you spurned as ‘Nut bars’… the Fringe dwellers the Media ignored… they were right… they are still right!
The Global meltdown is a Giant testimony to the Failure of socialism and the Regulated Economy!

That Millions sit with baited breath awaiting ‘the Budget’… as if awaiting a proclamation from Almighty God Just goes to show how politically enslaved….How deceived …. How un-self reliant the entire country has become!
In reality… if we were a healthy nation of free and self reliant people, The Government Budget ought to be of minor significance… Not as it is today… a matter of life and death!
This is a testimony to the tyranny and Nannyism We have accepted.
It is a testimony to our slavish / childish / pathetic worship of Little Gods Like Key and Shearer… at whose feet we grovel!
What a shameful pathetic people we have become!
Will you continue to swallow their filthy lies rather than face the truth?
We Must stop borrowing Money to feed the Beast!
We Must slit Nannys scaly throat and Liberate Lady Liberty from her Gulag!
We must Man up!
We must Slay the Beast for our children’s sake…and Face the world as freemen!
Lest you sell your children to Satan!
How can Freedom be any worse than this?… You are slaves of fear!
When will you realise that Big Government is millstone shackled around our necks?
When will you grasp the truth that the font of prosperity is not centralised political power… but the industry of a free and enterprising self-reliant people?
Tim Wikiriwhi.

Slavery, Tax

I’m working for the government!

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It’s true, I am working for the government (although right now I am procrastinating by writing this blog entry).

The pay is not good – in fact – I am the one who has to pay. And woe to me should I make a mistake.

I don’t actually mind paying taxes – what I hate is the work that I am forced to do.

Compulsion, Freedom, Indoctrination, Liberate your Mind!, Libertarianz, Nanny State, National Party, Nazi Thugs, Satan Laughing Spreads His Wings, Sheeple, Slavery, Socialism, State Rape, Tax, Totalitarianism, Tyranny, Vote 2011, Vote Wikiriwhi!, Zombies

The World is a Vampire.

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In Booker T Washingtons Autobiography ‘Up from Slavery’ there is a story about a slave being sold. In retelling the event he said “There were five of us; myself and brother and three mules.”
That is as funny as it is tragic.
Liberty lovers are about as excited about the approach of Election Day this Saturday as Slaves at a market. We are painfully aware that no matter whom wins, our slavery will continue. We will be treated like Beasts of burden.
It is cutting to be surrounded by willing slaves, whom actually believe our slavery to Socialism is good and that Libertarians like myself are fools to believe in Freedom.
The absolute travesty of the Election process, esp the whore-ish sycophantism of the so-called ‘Free Press’ is unbearable! The Evils of state control of the Education system has resulted in the so-called free press becoming the Lap dogs of the Status quo. Thoroughly indoctrinated and certified by the State, they willingly peddle the Official line.
Our Country is marching towards destruction like Children enchanted by the Pied Piper.

You think Im exaggerating dont you…FOOLS!
I would board a Plane and fly away… yet what is happening here in our crappy little Hippy commune is happening the whole western world over. There is nowhere to run.
Thus I and my fellow Liberty lovers are trapped like rats. Dont get too close… We may Bite.
Tim Wikiriwhi

ALCP, Ayn Rand, Freedom, Jihad on Drugs™, Libertarianz, Live Like It's Legal, Meta-ethics, Philosophy, Slavery, Tax, Vote 2011

A top tax rate of 39 minutes

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I’m inordinately fond of this quotation from comedian Katt Williams.‎

If you ain’t got no job, and you not smoking weed, I don’t know what the fuck you are doing with your life, I really don’t.

Some people seek to spend their every waking hour hard at work. Some people seek to spend their every waking hour hard at play. And some people seek an elusive “work/life balance”. Are you keeping busy?

This post is a bit of a follow-up to why I am a libertarian. I am a libertarian because one cannot consistently argue for personal liberties and at the same time be opposed to economic liberty.

I have been a drug law reform campaigner my entire adult life. I joined NORML over thirty years ago – or tried to. I was told to wait a year or two until I turned 18. The idea of persecuting people for choosing to smoke a herb that makes them feel happy and relaxed, and enhances their appreciation of food, music and sex always seemed to me both ludicrous and wrong. There are too many smokers to arrest!

The fact that there are too many cannabis smokers to arrest makes cannabis prohibition ludicrous, but it does not make it wrong. At university I once attended an introductory lecture on critical thinking. The lecturer devoted his time to demolishing most of my long cherished arguments in favour of drug law reform. I was aghast! And chastened. I realised that deploying bad arguments for good causes is not a good idea. I also realised that I needed only one good argument in favour of drug law reform. That argument is the argument from human rights. I have a moral right to smoke cannabis! It ain’t nobody’s business if I do! The state should leave peaceful people alone to enjoy smoking weed, if that’s how they choose to spend their time.

It wasn’t until a few years later that I realised that my one good argument was actually an entire political ideology. That’s when I realised I was a libertarian. I have a moral right to earn money! It ain’t nobody’s business if I do! The state should leave peaceful people alone to enjoy earning money, if that’s how they choose to spend their time. And it should leave peaceful, productive people alone to enjoy the fruits of their labours. Prohibition is violence and taxation is theft. Both institutions depend, ultimately, on coercion by the state. Both are wrong, and for the same reason. Whatever may be open to disagreement, there is one act of evil that may not, the act that no man may commit against others and no man may sanction or forgive.* So long as men desire to live together, no man may initiate—do you hear me? no man may start—the use of physical force against others.

But, from a governmental perspective, there are differences between smoking pot and earning money. Time is money. The government can tax your money, but it can’t tax your time. Unless you try to combine smoking pot with earning money. Then you run the risk of a tax bill of several years in jail. This happened to one of the great heroes of New Zealand’s drug law reform movement, Dakta Green. Right now, he should be out campaigning for the ALCP vote in New Lynn. Instead, he’s rotting behind bars. Dakta Green says

After you’ve spent a little time in jail for growing a little weed, it tends to focus your mind on whether or not that’s a fair and proper response from authorities to our citizens. I, along with millions of others around the world, have decided that cannabis should be legally available for adults.

I’m one of those millions of people who’s decided that cannabis should be legally available for adults. That’s why, this election, I’m standing for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party. I’m the ALCP candidate for the Mana electorate, and #9 on the party list. Tick, tick!

[Cross-posted to SOLO.]

(*This is the Objectivist version of the NIOF principle, due to Ayn Rand. Christians may not sanction, but they must forgive. Yes, even the tax collectors.)