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Ryan Bridge: Businesses are the forgotten victims of the capital gains debate · The SME Stream

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So Luxeon's back in the news. So's Jisinda. Actually this
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is a Bryce s Edwards piece written about our MP.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So apparently own two point two homes per MP, more
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: than most of us. Jasindra Adern made more than three
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: hundred k while she was in office selling a property
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: our prime minister Luxeon has made close to half a
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: million dollars in capital gain. I should say we don't
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: know what he's spent on them. Now, let's really talk
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: about a capital gains tax, because we essentially have one
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: on investment property. It's the bright line test. You can
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: argue over how long that should be, and governments have
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: changed this from red to blue, you know, ten to
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: two years. So let's sideline property for just a second
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: and talk about businesses. Do you really think it's fair
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to tax the gain on sale of a business? Business
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: owners take huge risk. They work incredibly hard. And I'm
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: not saying we don't, but they do work incredibly hard.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: There's the stress, the late nights, the untold hours, have
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: lost sleep. They employ people, they pay them, they pay
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: tax on their earnings as they go. They help support jobs,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: they grow the economy. They provide that tax base that
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: we so desperately need for hospitals and education, etc. And
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: then when they finally are either burnt out or wanting
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to move on and grow something else, Bang, we hit
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: them with a tax on the sale of their business.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: That doesn't seem fair to me. We need people to
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: invest confidently into their businesses and grow them for the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: benefit of all of us. I don't think a capital
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: gains tax on businesses will achieve that.