There has been allot of talk about taxes in relation to investment property recently. There has been a government task force looking into the idea of capital gains taxes on investment property, principally a capital gains tax.
It appears our "business friendly" National Government are trying to shake down its citizens for even more taxes to fund the continued high spending of our Government.
I don't remember them in their pre-election campaigning that they were going to implement new taxes but be that as it may it looks likely some kind of tax on investment property is likely.
I don't agree with this at all, taxes kill economies and make Governments bigger and we know that aint good.
As I wrote last month the best thing to do to put investment property on an even keel with other classes of investments is to remove taxes from those other classes, not add another wallet numbing penalty to property investors.
Either way though if there are taxes applied to investment property, and I think there will be, this is going to be a minor boon for the New Zealand Stockmarket.
The withholding tax applied to dividends by Labour in 2007 further put stockmarket investors on the back foot and any move to even the score with property investment is a win for New Zealand.
The Nats probably wont raise taxes on investment property by a significant amount because of the obvious political ramifications, but any move that hamstrings the investment property market is going to be good for those of us investing in real productive companies that are either listed on the Stockmarket or indeed private ones.
About time us wise ones we got a break.
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