Ryan Bridge: Businesses are the forgotten victims of the capital gains debate

So Luxon is back in the news. Bryce Edwards written a piece saying our members of parliament own 2.3 homes per MP - more than most of us. 

Jacinda made $330,000 on her property while Prime Minister. Luxon has made close to half a million dollars on his properties. 

Now let's really talk about a capital gains tax, because we essentially have one on investment property - the bright line test. 

You can argue over how long that should be, and governments have changed this from red to blue, from 10 to 2 years. 

But let's sideline property for a second and talk about business. 

Do you really think it's fair to tax capital gains on the sale of business? 

Business owners take huge risk, work incredibly hard and have to deal with stress, late nights, untold hours of lost sleep. 

They also employ people, pay them, pay tax on earnings, help support jobs, grow the economy, provide tax base of hospitals/education etc. 

Then when they finally are either burnt out or wanting to move on grow something else, bang! We hit them with a tax on their earnings. 

It doesn't seem fair to me. We need people to invest confidently into their businesses and grow them for the benefit of all of us. 

I don't think a capital gain tax on business will achieve that. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Luxeon's back in the news. So's Jacinda. Actually this
is a Bryce Edwoods piece written about our MP. So
apparently own two point two homes per MP, more than
most of us. Jasindra Adern made more than three hundred
k while she was in office selling a property our
prime minister Luxeon has made close to half a million
dollars in capital gain. I should say we don't know

(00:23):
what he's spent on them. Now, let's really talk about
a capital gains tax, because we essentially have one on
investment property. It's the bright line test. You can argue
over how long that should be, and governments have changed
this from red to blue, you know, ten to two years.
So let's sideline property for just a second and talk
about businesses. Do you really think it's fair to tax

(00:45):
the gain on sale of a business? Business owners take
huge risk. They work incredibly hard. And I'm not saying
we don't, but they do work incredibly hard. There's the stress,
the late nights, the untold hours, have lost sleep. They
employ people, they pay them, they pay tax on their
earnings as they go. They help support jobs, they grow

(01:06):
the economy. They provide that tax base that we so
desperately need for hospitals and education, etc. And then when
they finally are either burnt out or wanting to move
on and grow something else, Bang, we hit them with
a tax on the sale of their business. That doesn't
seem fair to me. We need people to invest confidently

(01:28):
into their businesses and grow them for the benefit of
all of us. I don't think a capital gains tax
on businesses will achieve that. For more from News Talks
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