Photo: ODT filesWhile politicians dance their coalition gavotte, there is time to ponder big issues. National attacked Labour on income tax, including on capital gains, and ``water tax'' and trumpeted its own ``families package'' of income tax cuts and benefit and allowances adjustments. To them, fairness suggests taxing all income, including from capital gain. The less-and-least-well-off have to navigate a contorted tangle of income tax, Working for Families, benefits, special allowances, rebates and abatement rates. Both are ``rather 20th-century'', unsuited to the more fragmented and insecure ``work'' and income in the late 2010s and the 2020s.

Source: Otago Daily Times September 25, 2017 16:18 UTC