Business groups and the Opposition were yesterday celebrating the Government's backdown on plans for an inner-city carpark tax but say it's time other "annoying little taxes", such as the proposed laptop and smartphone tax, were dropped too.
Finance Minister Bill English and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne announced the backdown yesterday, just hours after Mr Dunne defended the proposal as increasing fairness in the tax system.
"This was considered likely to be one of those proposals from IRD where the cost of compliance, compared with the likely return, made it not worth pursuing," Mr English said.
Employer groups, unions and others who opposed the tax through the FBT Action Group estimated the tax would cost businesses about $30 million in compliance costs for revenue of just $17 million a year.
But Prime Minister John Key yesterday said advice from officials was that compliance costs would be just a tenth of what the group estimated.