Latest / Best of Business / James Fuller: Hnry CEO on the six policies sole traders would prefer over a $20 tax credit

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James Fuller: Hnry CEO on the six policies sole traders would prefer over a $20 tax credit · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
• 0:12
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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Pre budget. No shortage of noise about tax cuts, of course,
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: how we couldn't afford them all. We'll ask a sole trader.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: You might find a different answer. We've got a survey
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  Speaker 2: show seventy seven percent support for lowering the second bracket
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  Speaker 2: tax rate from seventeen point five to fifteen point five percent,
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  Speaker 2: seventy four percent support for a two percent tax credit
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  Speaker 2: for self employed people, and a fifty seven percent support
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  Speaker 2: level for lowering income tax rates by profession. Now there's
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  Speaker 2: an idea, Henry CEO James Fuller willis, good morning, Good morning.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Questions I found very interesting and we'll work through them
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  Speaker 2: in a couple of minutes. What were you looking to
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  Speaker 2: find out in the way you're asking these questions.
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  Speaker 3: So when we do this this survey quarterly, we are
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  Speaker 3: sole traders around their businesses, how they're feeling, intimate, eutonomic
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  Speaker 3: from a personal standpoint, and so prior to the budget,
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  Speaker 3: we went out to sole traders to say, what are
• 1:00
  Speaker 3: the things that you would like to see from the
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  Speaker 3: government when it comes to supporting the sole trader sector.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, and were you surprised by the results?
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  Speaker 3: Well, not particularly. I mean, sole traders make up about
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  Speaker 3: four hundred thousand businesses in New Zealand, and so it's
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  Speaker 3: no surprise that they would want to see themselves be
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  Speaker 3: recognized by the government with some fiscal policies that they
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  Speaker 3: believe could really help inject some life into what is
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  Speaker 3: quite a stagnant economy.
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  Speaker 2: In the reason I asked the question is because, of course,
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  Speaker 2: if you followed the media, every man and his dog
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  Speaker 2: has his hand out at the moment, and we coun't
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  Speaker 2: afford tax cuts, and we need even more money for
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: the government to spend on even more things. And yet
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  Speaker 2: suddenly you find four hundred thousand New Zealanders who think
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  Speaker 2: completely differently.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. I don't think soul traders are looking
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  Speaker 3: for a handout here. They're really just coming up with
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  Speaker 3: fresh ideas to not only stimulate the economy but also
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  Speaker 3: to keep pace with other OECD countries. So we know
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  Speaker 3: from recently the government is looking to other countries for
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  Speaker 3: policy ideas, whether that's Estonia, and these are interesting ideas
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  Speaker 3: that so soul traders are supporting that do make sure
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  Speaker 3: we can keep pace with the likes of France or
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  Speaker 3: the Netherlands who have specifically recognized the benefit that sole
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  Speaker 3: traders bring to their economy.
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  Speaker 2: Does it complicated seventy four percent support for a two
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  Speaker 2: percent tax credit. Once you go down you can have
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  Speaker 2: a bit here and a bit there. Does it get
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  Speaker 2: administratively complex?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I think what's interesting is we've seen the government
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  Speaker 3: in the last few weeks make what I would say
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  Speaker 3: would be sort of sledgehammer changes to the tax system,
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  Speaker 3: whereas I think what we're talking about here is more
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  Speaker 3: of taking a scalpel in certain areas. So if you
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: look at the sort of fifty seven percent that support
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  Speaker 3: lowering income tax rates by profession to encourage more people
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  Speaker 3: to become self employed, you have this brain drain in
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  Speaker 3: sectors like nursing, in the trades where people are going
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  Speaker 3: across the tasment. So actually do it looking to do
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  Speaker 3: what they do in France, which has to incentivize people
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  Speaker 3: to stay in those trades or to go into those trades,
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  Speaker 3: is a great way of simulating those specific parts of
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  Speaker 3: the economy.
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  Speaker 2: I'm glad you raise that because that's a lot of
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  Speaker 2: support fifty seven percent, But when you go by profession.
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  Speaker 2: I mean there's Jesus, I mean what am I? Am?
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  Speaker 2: I a broadcaster? Am I a nurse? Amy a builder?
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  Speaker 2: And I mean I could be anything I want, couldn't I?
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  Speaker 2: And that's where your problem rises.
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  Speaker 3: Well, it doesn't du I mean, ID already takes off
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  Speaker 3: of what people do. And you look at the whole
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  Speaker 3: acc system is already set up to charge based on
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  Speaker 3: people's exact profession. So we already have this data within government.
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  Speaker 3: It's surely just a case of actually enacting those calculation
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  Speaker 3: changes at a government lean.
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  Speaker 2: And you would argue they've got the we'rewithal to do
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  Speaker 2: that if they really wanted to. So it's just a
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  Speaker 2: mindset that needs changing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's about recognizing soul traders and the
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  Speaker 3: benefit that they bring to the economy. I think there's
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  Speaker 3: been a big, sort of a glutted understanding of some
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  Speaker 3: successive governments about whose soul traders are and what value
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  Speaker 3: they bring. And what we're seeing from this survey is
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  Speaker 3: that forty four percent of sult traders believe they'll act
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  Speaker 3: to be worse off due to the government's tough decisions,
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  Speaker 3: and then indition, all fourteen percent aren't actually confident that
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  Speaker 3: the government can deliver on these election promises.
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  Speaker 2: Very good indeed, James, appreciate your time. James Fuller, who
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  Speaker 2: is the Henry spelled h r Y these days the CEO.
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