Revenue Minister Judith Collins has welcomed a second round of negotiations between China and New Zealand tax officials aimed at updating the current double tax agreement signed between the two countries in 1986.
“The aim is to agree a new treaty, adopting modern treaty language and concepts, including agreed measures to deal with base erosion and profit shifting,” Ms Collins says.
New Zealand tax officials will meet with Chinese officials in Beijing next week for the second time since 2014, to discuss a new treaty.
Double tax agreements are an important facilitator of trade and investment between countries because they ensure businesses don’t get taxed twice.
They provide greater certainty for both taxpayers and tax administrators about how cross-border investment income will be taxed. They reduce compliance costs and lower tax on some income.
Tax agreements are also used in the global fight against tax evasion, with signatories agreeing to share more tax information under the global standard set by the G20 and OECD.
China is New Zealand’s largest trading partner in goods and second largest overall including trade in services.
“In this context, it is vital to ensure our double tax agreement with China is up to date and follows best practices,” Ms Collins says.
| A Beehive release || August 11, 2017 |||
Croatia’s President, Her Excellency Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, will make her first official visit to New Zealand next week, Prime Minister Bill English has announced.
“New Zealand has a warm and constructive relationship with Croatia. The large Croatian community that has made New Zealand home has made an important contribution to our business, cultural and political life over many years,” Mr English says.
President Grabar-Kitarović and her delegation arrive on Saturday 19 August for a series of events, including an official welcome at Government House in Auckland and a State luncheon hosted by the Governor-General.
“I am looking forward to discussing a number of issues with the President, including her perspective on recent developments in Europe and opportunities to enhance New Zealand’s relations with the region.”
The President will be accompanied by her husband Mr Jakov Kitarović. They will visit Auckland, Wellington, Rotorua and Taupo, and will meet with members of the Croatian community.
The delegation will visit New Zealand until Tuesday 22 August.
| A Beehive release || August 10, 2017 |||
Our panel takes the National Party election engine apart---and diagnoses a machine in full reverse thrust
The National government has no more than a 50-50 chance now of winning the pending general election. This has come as a surprise and most of all to the National Party which is scrambling around its faithful to put together an 11th hour war chest to avert what many of its adherents are beginning to suspect is the inevitable. How did it all come to this? It seems only yesterday that the National government would go on and on and on….There was the almost monarchical transfer of power, the abdication of King John and the accession of the crown prince, now King William. What could go wrong? Simple. The National government’s formula of being all things to all people started to lose compression. Then this loss of impetus became obvious. The MSC Newswire panel now takes apart, disassembles, National’s election machine, the one supposed to drive it into power again. This reveals that the engine is sputtering just because so much National government policy is influenced by a category that does not vote for it. We now present in this exploded voting component presentation analysis the self-destructive path that the National Party insists on following, the one that favours those who do not vote for it, at the expense of its own voting blocs. This component bloc analysis is on an ascending order of sector significance.
Category 1: The IntelligentsiaThis is the sector which most preoccupies the National Party, yet which delivers it the least quantity of votes. We are talking here of the broad picture of social “science” centred on universities. This sector has the ability to make the National Party feel unfashionable. So the National Party constantly seeks the approval of this vote-arrid sector, often to the detriment of its own conservative base.
An example was when under the persuasion of the university lobby the National government university-ised crucial artisan and technical vocations. This had to be unpicked by Jim Anderton MP, he of the far left, and the trade apprenticeship courses re-instated and revved up.
This one-sided infatuation between the National Party and the intelligentsia elites continues still in several forms now in the run-up to the pending general election.
For example, the National government is paralysed in the matter of articulating in any clear fashion at all, the doctrines of global educational bodies, themselves university based, to the effect that money invested in early education delivers a value far in excess of the money invested in later education.
2. Administrative ClassThis is the category once described as white collar. They slog away doggedly keeping the nation on its course. We are talking here of those who work for institutions such as banks, insurance companies, utilities, and of course the government itself. This bloc has a problem. They are not very exciting and in this mediatic age this counts for a great deal. National governments take this sector pretty much for granted. What this category wants more than anything is stability.
Again, we find the National government in its preoccupation with the flashy and the fashionable elites quite unable to make the obvious gesture to this solid sector.
This should be to the effect that National governments personify stability and the once-much quoted “steady as she goes” way of politics.
National must make it clear to this sector that it recognises it – and will not be subjecting it to any sudden changes of the social engineering variety and which will de-stabilise it.
3. Self employedNew Zealand First’s Winston Peters MP has singled out this sector for special attention – and no wonder. National government’s treat this sector with a disdain bordering on snobbery. It refuses to acknowledge the immense contribution of this sector which generates in three dimensional and practical terms the prosperity of the country. We are talking here of people such as owner-drivers, plumbers, electricians, builders, butchers, bakers. Also, and this is not widely understood, IT people.
These solid, dependable types once again tend to be rather unexciting and so once more we find the National Party taking them pretty much for granted, or did so, until Mr Peters singled them out for his special attention.
One of the problems of this sector is that in expanding, or “growing” their businesses, they need to employ staff, and in doing so run the risk of incurring the immense distraction, not to say cost, of a disaffected employee and the litigation that they can invoke.
The National Party should clearly set out its record in streamlining hiring/firing and state unreservedly that it intends to introduce further such work place measures.
4. FarmersNational governments over the past 30 years have found it increasingly hard to adjust around this sector due to pervasive dairy farming, and more recently and to a much lesser extent, bio-farming.
As a voting bloc it has lost its significance to the National Party. Worse still, the National Party has let this show.
Who outside the sector can instantly recall for example the name of the Minister of Agriculture or the relevant departmental permanent heads?
This weakness too has been identified by New Zealand First’s Winston Peters who has cast himself as the true champion of this once clearly defined and identified backbone of the National Party.
Mr Peters has correctly drawn the conclusion that the National government’s constant compromising with the unproductive but noisy ideological factions has driven farmers to distraction, and thus alienationThis is quite simply the most cruel and the most dangerous cut that Mr Peters has ever delivered to the National Party of which he was once a loyalist.
How exactly does the National government explain why it has been so pliant with these ideologues, who have no intention of casting a vote in its direction in any shape or form?
Even at this late stage the National government must embark upon a strident, very noisy, old style tub-thumping campaign to remind its once key constituency of the way in which it has held firm in the face of so much ideological fear-mongering.
Two of these self-induced panics worth signalling might be Food Miles and the animal respiration/global warming syndrome.
5. The Professionals.This is the class from which National members of Parliament tend themselves to be recruited from. We are talking here of accountants, lawyers, company directors, medical doctors. The traditional boss class in other words. The National government badly needs to re-vitalise this base. The reason is that it is precisely this voter category that is now restless. It continues to vote National, certainly. But it will hedge.
This will take the form of tossing its spare vote to one of the other parties which however dotty it nonetheless views as being forthright, and thus decisive.
This category is in the business of making clear-cut decisions and across a wide swathe. It is becoming increasingly disaffected by the National government’s failure to do the same thing.
6. The TradersThis is the vocational category that loves the National Party and from which the National government will draw its largest single occupational vote haul. This sector is made up of those in occupations not particularly admired by the rest of the working population on the grounds that practitioners are amply rewarded for a minimal contribution to society, a contribution that in the view of many even has an entirely negative impact.
This is why the National Party in or out of office prefers to put some distance between it and this voter category, the only one it can truly rely upon in this pending general election.
We are talking here of course about real estate agents, property “investors” and the money dealers of various descriptions.
The reason they support National is that the National Party prefers to leave them alone in their counting rooms.
Even so, in the sea-change that has gripped politics in the Western world since the beginning of the last year, even this group cannot be relied upon to deliver its vote unprompted.
It is exactly for the benefit of this somewhat unloved category that the National government can deliver a daring policy. More importantly still, it can clearly state the reason for putting it forward. There is another benefit. It will not cost anyone a single cent.
The National government can announce that it will not introduce a capital gains tax. Ever.
Reason A. It is unenforceable and will merely create a wave of unproductive work for Category 2 and Category 5.
Reason B. Countries which have a capital gains tax, which means most OECD countries, have had far worse property bubbles than has had New Zealand.
Ireland is one such example. Britain and the United States are two others.
| From This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. || Friday 11 August 2017 |||
What is the productivity recession? And why is it worrying brokers?
One stop source for New Zealand seafood information launched
NZ manufacturing activity slows in July as winter weather weighs
Coke's Kiwi Blue 'exempt' under Labour's water bottling plan
Updated China-NZ tax agreement to be progressed
PM welcomes Croatian President to NZ
Appeals planned over seabed mining
Government back tracks on import of compost containing animal manure
Mondo Travel - Airfare special until seats allocated are sold - Phone: 0800 110 108
Christchurch to Asia & Europe - $100 off any round-trip ticket flying China Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Emirates or Singapore Airlines – sales until further notice. Only valid on flights ex Christchurch – for travel departing up to 31 December 2017 (return travel must be completed before 31 January 2018).
Who's ready to do some fishing with Jo Holley? You can fish for prizes in Rarotonga ... and raise funds for a great cause at the same time!
Join us in November this year for the inaugural Sportfishescapes & Heroworx fundraising sportfishing challenge.
This year it’s ‘Raro Busted & Bruised 2017’ - a week of great fishing in the fabulous Cook Islands and all for a worthy cause. The local Puaikura Volunteer Fire Brigade is currently looking to erect a new ‘Covered Parking Bay’ for its fire appliance so join us in November and let’s help raise some funds for this worthy volunteer organisation.
To obtain further details or register your fishing team for ‘Raro Busted & Bruised 2017’ contact Peter Barry on email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or call on 021 434 220.
Three quarters of New Zealanders believe more funding for health and medical research should be a government priority and that the government should invest more funding in health research, according to a survey just released.
The poll of more than 500 Kiwis was conducted by Roy Morgan Research for a national health umbrella organisation, New Zealanders for Health Research (NZHR).
Improving hospitals and the healthcare system was the most important issue for the government to focus on, the survey found.
NZHR chief executive Chris Higgins says Kiwis surveyed placed the highest priority on research to find ways to prevent illness and promote good health, and to improve the health system.
“We found 44 percent of Kiwis donate to health research; the main reason for not donating is because health research is considered to be the government’s responsibility.
“A total of 84 percent said that pharmaceutical companies should invest more in health research, and 78 percent expressed willingness to participate in any clinical trial of a new medicine if they had a condition it might be able to treat.
“Nobody knows exactly how much the government spent on health research in the last year because government research funding in channelled through a number of agencies, who then use their discretion as to whether it gets spent on health research or some other research. The best estimate is that about $300 million worth of government spending would have found its way to health research.
“NZHR has decided to focus on allocations which have to be spent exclusively on health research. In the last year this figure was $90.4 million. We believe this figure should increase to $108 million next year. The government has budgeted $98 million. We estimate the annual philanthropic support for health research is about $17 million.
“New Zealand’s ringfenced government investment in health research stands at just 0.6 percent of health care costs. New Zealanders for Health Research believes that the government should be adopting a 10-year investment target of 2.4 percent.
“Three quarters of New Zealanders said in the survey that the government should invest more funding in health research and such a target therefore is likely to have wide electoral support,” Higgins says.
NZHR is chaired by Graham Malaghan, of the Wellington-based Malaghan Institute of Medical Research.
| A MakeLemonade/NZHR release || August 9, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242