Letters to the editor: Capital Gains Tax bad for the economy

A CGT is bad for the economy, writes one reader. Photo / File

In her column about house prices, Dawn Picken says ruling out Capital Gains Tax (CGT) is a mistake (Opinion, December 12).

Her comprehensive column also refers to share prices and mentions figures she obtained about the growth in share prices ranging from an annual 8 per cent to 16.2 per cent over five years.

In my view, the important piece that Dawn misses is that CGT is likely to apply to all sorts of assets including shares in public and private companies. This then leads to virtually everyone's KiwiSaver returns being diminished by CGT.

Over many years, for young people that will have a tremendous adverse effect on their ultimate retirement savings.

CGT has a vicious side effect for owners of many entities that restructure. This is in the sense of mergers and acquisitions where there is a swapping around of ownership with no cash arising from a so-called capital gain.

Also merely selling something and buying on the same market may cause a horrendous backstep in having to pay CGT on what is really an artificial calculation.

CGT is bad for the economy. It causes people and super schemes to prefer to stay on with their current investment

Bill Capamagian
Tauranga

Stop apologising

I have not asked the Prime Minister or any other government agent to apologise to anyone on my behalf.

Is it possible to withdraw my inclusion to these largely banal, ever-increasing number of apologies?

A D Kirby
Papamoa

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