On Monday, the government announced its intention to scrap gift duty. Their rationale is that it brings in only $1.5 million a year, so there's no point retaining it. Sure, but the point of gift duty isn't really to tax gifts - its to prevent people evading taxes by "giving" stuff to their relatives. And once you see it like that, the fact that the rich spend $70 million a year complying with gift duty tells us that its removal would result in open slather.
So, I agree with Phil Goff: this is just another tax cut for the wealthy, just another example of National looting the state for the benefit of its wealthy donors and cronies. Its what National does, of course - but we shouldn't be happy about it.
