GST on online shopping

[CamB 48]

Yeah looks like we are on the same page, although I think the key is having the discipline to use the money wisely (ie actually reducing a mortgage or other debt, which I am sure you do), plus if one can genuinely get employer contributions (or would genuinely miss out on them if not in KiwiSaver) then KiwiSaver is a good deal.

Plus if anyone is intending to make a financial (as in bank deposit / other interest bearing / sharemarket) investment for the long term, KiwiSaver with matching is tough to beat on paper. I wouldn't want anyone to read this thread an form a different view.

**note i am not qualfied advisor

[zero 1160]

Not sure what your point is here... you dont opt out of Super by opting in to Kiwisaver...

I am not looking forward to the day Kiwisaver is compulsary.

Those that it will benefit are already in it, and I will admit for the vast majority of people its a great scheme.

However, one of the few brackets it doesnt benefit is the one I am in, 40 years off retirement but already own my home.

In my case, it will hold me back from where I want to be in 10-20 years time if it came in now.

In any case, Kiwis should have the freedom to continue building thier own brighter future, not rely on some fat cat i dont know.

Make Kiwisaver comulsory and in effect you have increased taxes and super, with a bunch of investment houses clipping the ticket

I'm saying that kiwisaver will slowly phase out super over time, and that there is much fear mongering that super is not sustainable (which is not true if you look at the gdp figures).

And kiwisaver will become compulsory irrelevant of which government is in power, although Labour will make it happen faster (its been a policy of theirs for a while).

I agree that in your situation you are better to pay down debt first, although the government contribution (which also wont be there forever) is a good sweetener.

[zero 1160]

Reasons to be in:

• you have poor financial literacy and dont understand why you should be saving for the future ie you spend every dollar in your pocket every week

Sadly, it is this reason why kiwisaver will become compulsory.

Too many stupid people not making good financial decisions will necessitate this.

[jin108 25]

Agree. They will quickly find it costs way too much to chase the money.

Customs will not want to do this for free. Delays and fees will cause much grief.

I doubt they will care one bit about the cost of collection. Remember its not their money they are spending its taxpayers money. I doubt they really give a toss about cost v benefit of use of our money. Customs themselves, from a bureaucratic perspective would love this change to happen. Its means they can get a bigger budget, hire more staff, become more important etc to hell with what it costs the taxpayer.

John Key is perfectly comfortable spending $26m to convince us to change the flag before even bothering to ask us if we want to. Because it not his money he is spending our money.

This is more about pressure from the retail sector which leads to the trotting out of excuses like "we have to do what Australia does".

[zero 1160]

John Key is perfectly comfortable spending $26m to convince us to change the flag before even bothering to ask us if we want to. Because it not his money he is spending our money.

The reason it has to be done this way is because if the first referendum was "Do you want to change the flag?" people would say "it depends on what the new flag is".

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

https://www.facebook.com/pmjohnkey/videos/10153534317450429/

[jin108 25]

https://www.facebook.com/pmjohnkey/videos/10153534317450429/

Gotta say he is pretty dismissive about the cost. Because its not his money. Typically a business would not go about designing a product before doing market research on whether there is demand for it. Careful analysis and surveys would be performed before even coming up with prototypes. But this doesnt apply to govt and they dont need to be careful about how they spend money. Because its not their money.

I wonder if he would still do it if he had to refund the $26m if the referendum result is for "no change". Key is so convinced kiwis want a change then he should put his money where his mouth is.

Anyway sorry for the OT and rant

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

Gotta say he is pretty dismissive about the cost. Because its not his money. Typically a business would not go about designing a product before doing market research on whether there is demand for it. Careful analysis and surveys would be performed before even coming up with prototypes. But this doesnt apply to govt and they dont need to be careful about how they spend money. Because its not their money.

I wonder if he would still do it if he had to refund the $26m if the referendum result is for "no change". Key is so convinced kiwis want a change then he should put his money where his mouth is.

Anyway sorry for the OT and rant

always possible to view things you intended to view them before you started.

I don't think we NEED to change, but we don't NEED a lot of things the government provides for us.

I like the blue and red one with the fern through it over the current flag.

However if the option was the maori flag thats been an unofficial one for us for many years i would vote no.

The idea was tabled before the last election along with asset sales, and the TPPA has been in progress for over 10 years.

and yet people still put National in power with the biggest majority for several decades.

As usual, its the people with the smallest percentage in society trying to make up for their lack of numbers by having a louder voice.

Edited August 30, 2015 by _Ethrty-Andy_

[zero 1160]

The idea was tabled before the last election along with asset sales, and the TPPA has been in progress for over 10 years.

and yet people still put National in power with the biggest majority for several decades.

This ^^^

By voting for National you knew there would be a flag referendum.

The people spoke, and overwhelmingly voted for a National government.

That is democracy.

[KwS 2378]

The "people" are idiots.

[gjm 3194]

I wonder if he would still do it if he had to refund the $26m if the referendum result is for "no change". Key is so convinced kiwis want a change then he should put his money where his mouth is.

John Key was originally against the flag change, calling it a waste of time and money.

I wonder what changed his mind?

And don't get me started on the TPPA. That's a stick with two shitty ends. The majority of the public who have paid any attention to it, worldwide, seem against it yet governments insist on pushing it through while big business sits back, chuckles, and rubs its hands with glee.

[NZ BMW 368]

The worst part about the proposed GST changes is not the paying of GST but the part in there which has a fine of up to $30K for using an offshore streaming service like the US Apple TV store or US Netflix... they don't even give you the option of filing a return and paying your tax, just shut down the content. What next?! Banning all offshore goods except those who have import licences, we all know how that movie ends.

[jin108 25]

The worst part about the proposed GST changes is not the paying of GST but the part in there which has a fine of up to $30K for using an offshore streaming service like the US Apple TV store or US Netflix... they don't even give you the option of filing a return and paying your tax, just shut down the content. What next?! Banning all offshore goods except those who have import licences, we all know how that movie ends.

We could re-enact the 70s and 80s where anyone who didnt have a job worked for the railways everyone was content and unicorns were in abundance.

[gjm 3194]

We could re-enact the 70s and 80s where anyone who didnt have a job worked for the railways everyone was content and unicorns were in abundance.

The government would export the unicorns so they were more expensive here than abroad...

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

If you (not anyone in particular in this thread) had a budget of several million dollars to make your opinion on the TPPA, your opinion would be valid. Unfortunately you don't, I don't, so we collectively rely on the government that we have voted in and paid to be there to make the decision for us. The facts are that no kiwi individual has all the facts. This is exactly why i haven't put myself in a position here or elsewhere where i support the TPPA or not, I do not have all the FACTs to make my own mind up, so i rely on the Government.

Same with Asset sales, I did not have an opinion one way or the other, and relied on my government to make their decision.

The assets have lost value since being sold. One argument is poor Kiwi Investors. My argument is they shouldn't have brought in. The numbers just didn't stack up when i looked into it and kept my money elsewhere in the share market. The government extracted the maximum value they could.

Don't forget when you sell a business is unlike selling a car. The price you set for the company is far higher than the assets value. Included is the profit that would have been gained over the next X number of years. unlike a house or car where you are only selling the capital value, not the future benefits. We are still being paid the "lost profits", we have already got them.

I relied on the government we put there to make the correct decisions which on the balance of FACTS they did.

If you really think you are hard done by the National Government, you would become a refugee in another country.

I am very right leaning, but even i will admit if a Labour government was in power, I am still very fortunate to live in a country where the citizens collectively choose who to put in charge, and for the most part both parties do not abuse this privilege.

Don't forget, if you voted someone other than the current party in power, your voice IS still heard through the party you voted for, proportional to the amount of people in the society that think the same way as you do. Its not a National show up in there. They are forced to listen to other parties that are in the house. National cannot do whatever they please, as they rely on other party support. One of the reasons I didn't vote National last election despite my support for them, I am not comfortable with one party having an outright majority by themselves, it doesn't work out well elsewhere in the world.

Edited August 30, 2015 by _Ethrty-Andy_

[MattA 162]

Well said Andy.

[m325i 705]

Same with Asset sales, I did not have an opinion one way or the other, and relied on my government to make their decision.

The assets have lost value since being sold. One argument is poor Kiwi Investors. My argument is they shouldn't have brought in. The numbers just didn't stack up when i looked into it and kept my money elsewhere in the share market.

GNE is up 20%+ mate (incl bonus issue)

[KwS 2378]

My biggest issue with the added GST isnt the cost (its a shitty situation but hey), its the time frame that it currently takes customs to get gst payments currently. Unless they completely overhaul the customs system and somehow contact buyers quicker its going add a lot of time and work onto every package you buy online.

The hardest thing with a new system is that for the majority of packages that you buy online, a name and address is all thats on the pack from the seller, so thats all customs have to be able to contact you. snail mail is sh*t, and quickly working its way down to being unusably slow.

[Allanw 1052]

$26 mill is nothing really - you'd be amazed at the money wasted every day. Even though you think it's a lot, it's probably more than you think.

Of course you aren't allowed to publicly say bad things about the "establishment" you work for... and they are all the same, to varying degrees, it seems - like everyone didn't already know THAT!

Seriously - $26M is about the value of the gear "A guy I know" looks after in "his" department... in a certain establishment (with 3 outlying establishments), in a small town - and that's only the little stuff, most expensive singleitem is about $250K, the BIG gear, that's kind of built in, is more millions, per system. That only covers 150K of the NZ population.

"Social Security and Welfare" costs about the same as Heatlthcare AND Education combined!

[_ethrty-Andy_ 2122]

GNE is up 20%+ mate (incl bonus issue)

You must be looking at the chart upside down.

Around $2.30 when it was sold, currently around $1.85 mark, which is 20% LESS

[CamB 48]

Issue price $1.55, plus incentives, so up 30c.

Meridian was $1.50 ($1.00 plus 50c) and now $2.21. Mighty River was $2.50, now $2.77. All three are focusing on maximising cash generation and minimising expansion capex in a way they didn't under 100% govt ownership. Usually people argue they were sold too cheap...

Air NZ also well up on what the govt sold its shares at, but its an airline and is getting unforeseen wins on fuel cost now.

Solid Energy ... still 100% govt owned. Sort of.

[zero 1160]

Issue price $1.55, plus incentives, so up 30c.

Meridian was $1.50 ($1.00 plus 50c) and now $2.21. Mighty River was $2.50, now $2.77. All three are focusing on maximising cash generation and minimising expansion capex in a way they didn't under 100% govt ownership. Usually people argue they were sold too cheap...

They were sold too cheap because the greens and labour took huge amounts of value off the sale price when they sabotaged the share float.

Politically it was an extremely clever move as it took over a billion dollars out of Nationals ability to reach surplus, but it is the taxpayer who pays the price.

The taxpayer lost out on $1B - $2B because of economic sabotage.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11429715