Labour Electioneering On Economic Fascism: State Running Private Firms.

Last week I wrote how in New Zealand everything is tax avoidance now, and everything is illegal, hence every citizen is corralled and controlled by an all-knowing command state, even if it doesn’t ‘feel’ that that way because our shuffle into a caring totalitarianism has been so slow. This is why liberty is dead in the West, and Western command economies are failing, our living standards first stagnating, and in those high taxed countries like France, plummeting, as business leaves or shuts its doors.

 

I’ve not got time to go into the next piece until a blog at least next week, but enough to say that when everything is tax avoidance, then that logically justifies IRD officials, the state, to control and manage the financial plans, by veto, of private firms – noting that when you own a firm’s financial plans, you own its operations. If elected, New Zealand Labour leader, David Cunliffe, will turn this into policy:

 

Labour has previously indicated it wants to front-foot the thorny issue of tax minimisation on New Zealand revenue by internet-based businesses, rather than relying on international efforts led by the OECD group of developed economies, which is the preferred approach of the National Government.

 

[Snip]

 

Today's plan hinges on setting up a special commissioner for tax avoidance who would focus on multinational corporations.

 

Under that commissioner, a new corporate tax unit would "embed" Inland Revenue Department (IRD) auditors in corporations which have a history of tax avoidance either in New Zealand or abroad.

 

The embedded IRD officials would review multinationals' financial plans where they may affect their tax bills to prevent tax avoidance from occurring in the first place.

 

Cunliffe probably thinks this a conciliatory move because it backs off from his Revenue spokesman's earlier threat to ban these multi-nationals operating in New Zealand in total. And I’ve already had one person on Twitter run the debate this is a fine idea, one they’ll obviously vote for.

 

I despair, and wonder how the hell, with twentieth century social, political and economic history to have learned from, we’ve got to this. For every reader who has not yet understood my point that the tax surveillance state is where the truncheon of the totalitarian state meets our backsides, understand this story.

 

Minister McClay & National Government To Increase Cost Of Living For All.

From Rob Hosking behind the NBR pay-wall:

A stepped up effort against tax avoidance by multinational firms will feature strongly in Inland Revenue’s much-delayed compliance document, expected to be released within the week.

The document, Compliance Focus, is usually released at the end of July or early August and sets out the IRD’s priorities on tax for the coming year … The multinational dimension though is understood to be the main cause of the delay. Key to this is the impact of work by the OECD and other international agencies, along with other tax authorities, on what is called BEPS’ – base erosion and profit shifting - by multinational firms.

Put simply, this is involves a small number of high profile  firms – such as Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook, Starbucks, and global rock bands such as U2 – shifting their declared profit, revenue and intellectual property to the most tax  advantageous regimes.

Let’s rewrite this to understand what is actually happening, remembering that taxation is a cost:

Minister Todd McClay and IRD will soon issue their document setting out the process required to increase the living costs of all hard working Kiwis. Minister McClay is effectively saying he demands higher prices for books, higher prices for the computer gear we all use, higher prices for that Starbucks latte over which to contemplate the higher costs of everything thanks to the tax take. While his department may have looked at the possibility of simply making our tax system more competitive, he's decided Kiwis have it too good, so by increasing the taxation cost of these firms, he can force them to raise the prices of their products and services.

Minister McClay is also saying that increasing the cost of taxation for these firms world-wide is a worthy part of a concerted one-world-tax-state attempt to slow up innovation in the private sector. Why would they want to squash innovation? Perhaps they are thinking this a good thing? Looking toward the new iPads coming out next month, I guess it'll mean we won't have to update our Apple shit so often. Who needs choice and freedom.

(Footnote: though by all means, send the IRD storm troopers in on that hypocrite Bono, who would strait-jacket us in those 'responsibilities' he won't wear himself.)

Related posts:

Bernard Hickey’s Lates Outage, Sorry, Outrage. Increase Cost of Living Via Tax.

Amazon is the Hero, Not the Villain in the Piece.