Alliance Financial Transaction Tax seriously flawed
Martin Poulsen, the National Party candidate for Auckland Central said there were major faults in Alliance tax policy.
“Last week the Alliance announced that it wanted to work with the New Zealand securities industry to issue bonds to help
its DFC type bank. This week the Alliances announcement of a Financial Transaction tax would do precisely the opposite”.
“Under an FTT regime, the New Zealand securities and savings industries and most likely the Treasuries of many New
Zealand corporates would quickly relocate to Sydney. Avoidance of this ill-conceived tax would be relatively
straightforward”.
“However, lost would be the future possibility of New Zealand being a banking and settlements centre with the advantages
of low costs and high quality staff. So would significant business tax dollars”.
“This would reinforce Sydney’s dominance as a financial centre and the New Zealand public would pay more for banking
services”.
Poulsen continued, “The Alliance seems to be in denial over the reality of the international mobility of capital.
Worryingly the Alliance does not understand the benefit of liquid capital markets. Their claims that this tax would
raise as much as GST are way off target”.
“The Alliances Financial Transaction Tax is a discredited scheme and its proposal lacks a serious understanding of NZ
business. It would add a further risk premium to New Zealand capital markets”, said Martin Poulsen.