Latest / The SME Stream / Sandy Lau: PWC tax partner on ANZ's Chief Executive voicing support for a Capital Gains Tax
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Capital gains tax is back in the news. A and
- 0:02Speaker 1: Z CEO Antonia Watson says that she supports one. If
- 0:06Speaker 1: someone had the courage to do it, I wouldn't be
- 0:07Speaker 1: jumping out of bed with joy, But in terms of
- 0:09Speaker 1: the overall fairness, it's probably a fair way to tax
- 0:13Speaker 1: another part of income in this economy. Antonia was not
- 0:16Speaker 1: available to speak with us about it. Am Z told
- 0:18Speaker 1: us this is her personal opinion, not the bank's opinion.
- 0:21Speaker 1: PwC tax partner Sandy Loo joins us now on this,
- 0:23Speaker 1: say Sandy, good afternoon. Why would a bank CEO endorse
- 0:28Speaker 1: the CGT.
- 0:29Speaker 2: Look. I think around Cavil gaines tax has been around
- 0:34Speaker 2: for quite a while, and over the last few years,
- 0:38Speaker 2: in particular the last couple of elections, there's been a
- 0:40Speaker 2: much more discussion around it, and I guess if we
- 0:44Speaker 2: look ahead at New Zealand in general, including some of
- 0:48Speaker 2: the key factors like our changing demographics, and thinking about
- 0:53Speaker 2: the level of tax that were collecting, it's one of
- 0:56Speaker 2: the topics more more because as the country needs to
- 1:01Speaker 2: grapple worth making sure we are connect collecting enough tax
- 1:07Speaker 2: to meet the expended our expenditure needs in the most
- 1:11Speaker 2: efficient manners. That's why lots more people are thinking and
- 1:15Speaker 2: talking about it. Is it?
- 1:17Speaker 1: I mean, look, the thing is sandy. In terms of
- 1:18Speaker 1: our actual tax revenue, right, it's not going to bring
- 1:20Speaker 1: that much. Is less than what like, it's less than
- 1:22Speaker 1: half of one percent. It's really hard to comply with,
- 1:25Speaker 1: It's really hard to collect. Is this just a case
- 1:28Speaker 1: of people wanting to get on the right side of
- 1:30Speaker 1: history on this one?
- 1:33Speaker 2: I think in terms of thinking about the overall tax system,
- 1:38Speaker 2: and I think it's actually one of the questions that
- 1:41Speaker 2: in a revenue is going to be thinking about as
- 1:43Speaker 2: part of their long term insights. Brief thing which is
- 1:47Speaker 2: actually is thinking about this. Does New Zealand's tax system
- 1:50Speaker 2: from a structural perspective? Is it going to meet this
- 1:53Speaker 2: future needs? And I think that's the piece around it.
- 1:55Speaker 2: And I don't think having a capital gains tax that's
- 1:58Speaker 2: going to be the Silla bullets are to stake and
- 2:02Speaker 2: it will fix all the problems, but it may be
- 2:04Speaker 2: one of the few things that needs to be done
- 2:07Speaker 2: to make sure that our tax system continues to be
- 2:10Speaker 2: fit for the future as we go ahead, to go
- 2:14Speaker 2: along for a.
- 2:15Speaker 1: Long time, let's say Sandy for the purposes of this exercise.
- 2:19Speaker 1: You are the finance minister and you're so popular that
- 2:21Speaker 1: you do anything you want. Would you introduce the CGT.
- 2:25Speaker 2: Look, I think there's a bunch of different options that
- 2:28Speaker 2: are put on the that could be put on the table,
- 2:30Speaker 2: and I think it's ultimately always going to be a
- 2:32Speaker 2: balancing act, right And I think one of the things
- 2:34Speaker 2: that we have seen in particular in the last government
- 2:39Speaker 2: was around that discussion of something alternative to a capital
- 2:41Speaker 2: gains tax, which was discussion around the wild taxes. So
- 2:45Speaker 2: I guess the key thing is looking at it, and
- 2:49Speaker 2: ultimately we have taxes is to make sure that we
- 2:54Speaker 2: generate enough the government can can link enough revenue in
- 2:57Speaker 2: the most efficient manner. So it's thinking about is this
- 3:01Speaker 2: the best way to collect the amount of cash that
- 3:04Speaker 2: the government needs, and if capital gains tax might be
- 3:08Speaker 2: one of the ones that's in the mixt I think
- 3:09Speaker 2: about
- 3:11Speaker 1: Okay, Sandy, thank you very much, Sandy Loo, PwC Tax Partner,