NEW ZEALAND & TAXATION

New Zealand & Taxation



New Zealand & Taxation

Introduction

Tax

A tax is a payment made to the government by an individual who has earned certain amount during a year. Income tax is a most important basis of income to the government. In other words it is an amount charged by a government on products, income, or activities. There are two types of taxes direct tax (which is charged on personal and corporate income directly) and indirect tax (which is charged on the prices of services and goods).

Taxation

Taxation is a set of rules as in when it should be paid, who pays the tax to whom and how much is the tax to be paid. Taxation is a process or means by which the ruler increases income to settle the required expenses of government, through its law-making body. Defined in another way, it is a method of allocating the expenses of government among those who are privileged to have the benefit of its facilities and must, therefore, bear its load (keen, 2002).

Purpose of Taxation

The idea of taxation is to generate profit for government expenses. One of the most important uses of taxes is to generate profit for public goods and services, such as street cleaning and street lighting. Public services and goods does not permit a defaulter to be excluded, or permit elimination by a consumer, there can no market in the good or service exist if it is not financed by some entity, and so the financial assistance by the government is to be given, which are likely to finance themselves largely through taxes collected from those individuals who fall under the category of 'tax payer'. Government financial functions are not possible without taxation.

Apart from this, taxation can be a powerful means in order to attain the objectives of economic development and the goals of social progress. Local industries may be defended through taxation by enforcing high customs duties to foreign goods. Moreover, taxation can also be used to decrease inequalities or inequities in income and wealth by progressively higher taxes as in the case of estate and income tax. So based on the earlier premises, it is clear that taxation is certainly the lifeblood of the state, without which the existence of the state will be put to danger.

Advantage & Disadvantage of Taxation

An advantage to taxation surviving is in the terms of public goods. There are a number of goods that private industry has zero incentive to provide because they usually aren't money-making, such as police departments, a military, transportation infrastructure, a court system, provision of food and drug standards, etc. If left to private industry, these services goods would not be provided at all or in limited supply (Brosio & Ahmad, 2007).

A disadvantage to taxation is that it can become extreme in certain ways, discouraging investment or work. As public may say that it is ineffective business, which takes savings, time and money, create restlessness in minds of people. Generally it does not take only money only but ...