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Dec 28, 2024 | 
newsroom.co.nz | Charles Finny
Comment: Those who have been reading or listening to my commentaries in recent months will note that I have a pretty bleak view of the immediate future. The New Zealand economy is struggling to grow, the economy of our major export market is not doing much better, we have wars in the Middle East and Europe, and we have the prospect of an even more protectionist United States from January 20.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Jem Traylen |Oliver Lewis |Charles Finny
A lobby group representing many of New Zealand’s largest companies is criticising the Inland Revenue Department for embarking on a wide-ranging review of the tax system without the proper Government mandate.The Corporate Taxpayers Group (CTG) said the scope of the Inland Revenue Department’s (IRD) next long-term insights briefing seemed to require a general review of all aspects of the tax system along the lines of the 2019 “Cullen” Tax Working Group and other prior general tax reviews.John...
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Nov 28, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Jem Traylen |Oliver Lewis |Charles Finny
The Government was told to consider putting immigration in a stand-alone agency or at least installing a governance board to advise the minister on how to improve efficiency.But immigration minister Erica Stanford told BusinessDesk that structural separation of Immigration New Zealand (INZ) wasn't one of her priorities.The advice came in an independent “rapid review” of the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) undertaken for Budget 2024 by former public service chief...
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Peter Griffin |Mike Mercer |Pattrick Smellie |Charles Finny
I’ve long admired the Australian Government’s willingness to apply the blowtorch to Big Tech companies, willing to question their market power and enact legislation to make them accountable for their actions.That certainly comes with some risk.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Oliver Lewis |Charles Finny
The Government could make decisions on how to transition the light vehicle fleet from fuel taxes to road user charges as soon as next March.The March 2025 date was included in tender documents uploaded to the Government Electronic Tender Services (GETS) website by the Ministry of Transport.The ministry is seeking information from businesses offering services that support the purchase, measurement or management of road user charges (RUC).“Your perspectives may help shape Government decisions...
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Charles Finny |Jem Traylen |Oliver Lewis
I wrote a piece for BusinessDesk just before the US presidential election, which was well-read in policy circles, and I am told some very senior people thought it rather grim. Knowing the result, I travelled to Washington, DC, to talk to friends, former colleagues, think tankers and members of the previous Trump Administration to test my earlier conclusions.Three things seem clear. Trump is going to apply some form of tariff pressure on China. The EU is going to find itself in focus.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Charles Finny
By Catherine LuceyWASHINGTON – Polls were closing Tuesday night in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina as an anxious nation awaited the outcome of a narrowly divided and turbulent presidential election that featured a late candidate swap and two assassination attempts.The moment of decision between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump arrived after billions of dollars in advertising, hundreds of campaign events and ominous warnings from...
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Charles Finny
By Ken ThomasRepublican Donald Trump used the final hours of his US presidential campaign to paint a bleak picture of the nation being “conquered” by his political opponents and migrants, often proudly veering into dark rhetoric and a list of grievances.
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Nov 5, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | David Chaplin |Paul McBeth |Charles Finny |Dileepa Fonseka
New Zealand just pipped Australia in the import-export duel over the 12 months to Sept 30, according to official data.Statistics department figures show NZ recorded a net gain of about $100 million in the selling-buying stuff balance, reversing a $235m trade deficit with our nearest neighbour over the previous 12-month period to the end of September 2023.But while the import-export scales might tip either way in any particular year depending on the relative demand for figurative (or literal)...
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Nov 4, 2024 | 
businessdesk.co.nz | Paul McBeth |Charles Finny |Dileepa Fonseka |Simon Robertson
The quaint world of taxation typically moves at a glacial pace, with highly complicated legislation requiring armies of policy boffins beavering away to deliver weighty tomes to preserve the integrity of the system. It makes sense – without robust revenue collection, governments would be out there with the begging bowl and waving signs proclaiming: “The end is nigh”. So major shifts bed in slowly then happen all at once.
