Bayly AndrewTAXATION (ANNUAL RATES FOR 2019–20 GST OFFSHORE SUPPLIER REGISTRATION AND REMEDIAL MATTERS) BILLIn CommitteePart 1 Annual rates of income taxANDREW BAYLY (National—Hunua): Thank you Mr Chair. As we all know this is the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2019–20 GST Offshore Supplier Registration and Remedial Matters) Bill. As we've said in the first and second reading National will be opposing this bill because it enshrines higher than required tax rates but I'm going to talk about that later. What I want to talk about in my first speech on this bill that we are debating tonight is this outrageous Supplementary Order Paper 248 (SOP) that the Minister has put on the table—what two hours ago? Maybe two and a half let's be generous. For the people who were listening in on TV when a bill like this goes through a select committee it is subject to intense scrutiny by all members of the select committee to take the opportunity to make sure that the changes or what's proposed in the bill is going to work appropriately achieves what the intent is and has the opportunity for people who are most likely to be affected by elements of that bill to have the opportunity to make a submission. Of course on this bill we had many submissions because it's a wide-ranging bill—that's why it's called a remedial matters bill which means it seeks to clarify and fix up a whole range of issues which it does. This bill has been going through the Finance and Expenditure Committee for some time for several weeks and to have this put on the table tonight I just find as part of the process—as a starting point for the discussion around this taxation bill—is not a good place to be. I'm very disappointed in the Minister who is sitting in the chair. So because we haven't had the debate around this Supplementary Order Paper I just want to ask the Minister some fundamental questions because simply we have not had the opportunity to ask them. This bill is about requiring anyone who sells a house to now have to include a statement that includes their IRD number. So the first thing I want to ask the Minister is: what is actually required in the statement? It's referred to in the SOP. The issue is before a transfer—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Can I just interrupt the member. The SOP that the member's speaking about is about parts that we're yet to come to. We're on Part 1; the SOP is not about Part 1. Hon Jacqui Dean: Good context though. ANDREW BAYLY: It's great context for this bill because this bill in terms of what it's trying to achieve is—I think the most important thing about it is as I said before the enshrining of the tax rates and the overarching aspects around that. I think that's the issue that we have with this bill and that's why we will continue to oppose it. In terms of some of the elements of the first part of this bill there is the issue of the rates of tax and I've got an SOP that sets those out which if the Minister and the Labour - New Zealand First coalition had accepted the National Party's tax cuts proposed when we were in power that would have meant that taxpayers in New Zealand would be paying on average a thousand dollars less in tax a year. When you put that into the context of what people are paying in increased rents all those sorts of things—and we know rents have gone up by over $50 a week—this measure alone is very very significant. So the current tax rates—where we have a variance is the rate at which the four different personal tax rates cut in. So we still want to see the same four levels but the thresholds where they cut in are substantially different. I think particularly for New Zealanders who—CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): I'm sorry to interrupt the member but it's come time for me to leave the Chair. Sitting suspended from 6 p.m. to 7.30 p.m.CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Members when we rose for the dinner break we were debating Part 1 of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2019–20 GST Offshore Supplier Registration and Remedial Matters) Bill. Andrew Bayly has the call and has 38 seconds remaining if he so wishes.ANDREW BAYLY: Thank you Mr Chair and I hope you're going to give me more time than 38 seconds because I was just starting to get into my stride about Part 1. As you know this is all about the tax rates that New Zealanders—hard-working New Zealanders—have to pay. This part of the bill this first part is about Labour and New Zealand First enshrining higher-than-required tax rates and this is what I want to talk to you about.I put a Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) up No. 250 which is about changing the proposed annual tax rates—[Bell rung] Mr Chair?CHAIRPERSON (Adrian Rurawhe): Andrew Bayly.ANDREW BAYLY: Thank you very much. As I was just saying I have put up an SOP No. 250 which says that we will change back to what National proposed which would have given everyone an over $1000 saving a year in terms of tax cuts. Of course as I said earlier rents have gone up by $50 a week—in fact slightly more—and the imposition of a whole stack of other taxes would actually go to help if this measure in my SOP was to be adopted tonight and I hope it is and I'm hoping the Minister of Revenue is looking carefully at these proposals.Under this arrangement we propose that the first rate of tax—and this is the current schedule: it goes from zero dollars to $14000 which incurs the lowest rate of tax at 10.5 percent. These are the students—many of us have sons and daughters that study—or people going back to study and retrain. These are the people—low-income people—that we want to make sure keep the tax. It's also a lot of the superannuitants.We have proposed under the SOP increasing that minimum threshold not from $14000 but increasing it up to $22000 at the same rate—10.5 percent. That's a huge saving—a huge saving. When you think about it a single superannuitant basically gets $23000 from the Government to help them when they are in their retirement and this would basically mean that all superannuitants would remain at the lowest tax rate of 10.5 percent not the $14000 threshold that this Government is now wanting to impose.Then the next level is 17.5 percent. Of course under the existing rules anyone earning between $14000 and $48000 incurs a tax rate of 17.5 percent. We propose lifting that from $22000 to $52000. Again when you think about the average wage in New Zealand probably in the order of about $65000 or $68000 now this is significantly helping those people who are not earning substantial amounts of money. They're the people we want to make sure keep their tax—that they don't have to pay tax at source; they keep the money in their pocket—and this is what the SOP is about.Then the threshold of $52000 to $70000 which is similar to the existing arrangements and no different for those high-income earners—everyone over $70000 would be taxed at 33 percent. So the whole purpose of the tax cuts was in fact all about looking after the most vulnerable the lowest paid the lowest income earners in New Zealand and actually really giving them something significant back in their pocket.I think when you think about this Government it rakes in about $73 billion a year from tax half of which broadly comes from taxpayers of which half of the personal tax—25 percent of total tax—comes from the top 11 percent of all taxpayers. Unfortunately the Prime Minister didn't know her facts today when she was asked. But the issue around this is looking after the personal tax take and making sure that we are looking after these people. But this Government wants to impose more taxes on people.This is one of the elements. There's a whole range of other taxes—another six taxes that this Government has imposed since coming into power in 2017 just a little over 19 months ago—and I think too much tax has been taken from people's pockets. We don't support that and I really really worry for how this Government is going around. You know they talk about increasing the minimum wage and that sort of stuff. We were trying to increase that as well but there's no use—[Interruption] We raised it every year: 50c on the dot same time every year and everyone knew it. We didn't come along and say to business We now want you to pay the increased minimum wage in hefty blocks." when they didn't even have a Budget or know it was coming. That's called uncertainty. That's why business confidence is declining in this country. That's why you've written off $3 billion of economic activity—or roughly about $600000 per person in New Zealand of economic activity has just been wiped because of silly questions and interjections like this. This is a good SOP. I support it even if it is my own."