Press Release

MANA Vice President John Minto

France takes the lead in Financial Transactions Tax stakes

August 2nd

Mana applauds the French government’s announcement of a Financial Transactions Tax in its budget released yesterday.

It will levy a 0.2% charge on shares traded in companies with a capital value of greater than one billion Euros (the 109 largest French companies) and is expected to bring on 150 million Euros this year and 500 million in 2013.

“This is the sort of initiative New Zealand should be introducing as a way to scrap GST” says MANA Vice President John Minto.

“We should be taxing unearned and currently untaxed income as a way to reduce the heavy impact of GST on low-income families. GST is a vicious tax on the poor which Mana has pledged to end”.

“The top 10% of New Zealand income earners pay just 5% of their income on GST while the poorest 10% pay 14% of what they earn on GST. MANA would take a FTT further with a levy on all speculative trading in the New Zealand dollar. This would bring in enough revenue to scrap GST altogether and with the added benefit of reducing the value of the New Zealand dollar which would mean greater income for our exports”.

“A FTT is a win-win-win-lose tax with the losers those who brought on the financial crisis which has made the struggle of low-income families that much harder”.

ENDS

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