PONSONBY PROFESSIONALS

PONSONBY PROFESSIONALS GET HELP FROM CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU

Sometimes you just can’t find what it is you are looking for, whether it is a firm to clean your gutters, a night class you would like to take, or maybe it is finding out who can help you advocate with a dispute with a government department or a utilities firm - or how to get your vaccine passport.

Whether you are computer savvy or not, can operate a smart phone or not, CAB can help you. Over the last six months, we have kept up our service across the country with an 0800 number - 0800 367 222.

Now as we negotiate the traffic light system, we are working towards opening up face to face at Grey Lynn Ponsonby branch with some restrictions as with many services to keep you and our staff safe. In the meantime, please do call our branch phone number 09 376 0392 – or the 0800 number, or email us on ponsonby@cab.org.nz.

And for our older clients we really can help you find the activity or interest that you are looking. Our community database has links to a vast array of them and our information officer regularly ensures that these are up to date listings. If you are on the web have a go yourself - type in “older persons” in the community directory (filter it by location) and up come lots of listings – for example: • Salvation Army Senior Services Programme • Seniors Dance • Grandfriends NZ • The Shanti Niwas Seniors Centre • Tennis Seniors

In our website when you click on the item, it then tells you information about it and how and who to make contact with. If you don't have the internet, ring us or, depending on the traffic light situation, come in and see us.

Of course, we are much more than an information-sharing site. Our volunteers are trained to assist you find options for all sorts of issues you might have. This last financial year, and I quote from the CAB Auckland City General Manager’s report:

“Demand for food parcels became the most common enquiry type in the 2020-21 year. We continued to help people with employment, housing and relationship issues, and during lockdowns these client concerns were often impacted by the Covid-19 Pandemic as well.” A key benefit of CAB in my view, having worked in the service now for more than six years, is that we are not constrained by time; our volunteers can and will take all the time you need. And you can call back the next day with more questions if you need to follow up. It is a free and confidential service, and most importantly, we do not judge. We work with the information you give us and help you find the way forward for yourself. I find too, that most people have the capacity for that, but sometimes talking it through with our volunteers, who are not in any rush, assists with giving clients the confidence to act.

Our service is available to people of all ages and stages and the demographics show that in Auckland we see people of all ages – and our volunteers also reflect the same variation. But we know that in today’s society, government agencies and the private sector are under severe resource pressures.

Barriers such as requiring online logins and long waits to speak with a real person can be frustrating and off-putting for some. So for our older clients (and anyone who finds this an issue) we take the time to help them find what they want and need.

Mā te tuakana te teina e tōtika, Mā te teina te tuakana e tōtika. The older will lead the younger and the younger will lead the older.)  PN

LESLEY BRADLEY, Manager of Citizens Advice Bureau, 510 Richmond Road, Grey Lynn. T: 09 376 0392, E: ponsonby@cab.org.nz

Your FIRST CALL for a wide range of free, up to date and confidential information about:

• Consumer rights • Budgeting • Legal clinics • Employment rights • Justice of the Peace • Health & welfare issues • House & tenancy issues • Unemployment problems • Education & training • Personal & family issues • Immigration needs • Local & general information • Photocopying & faxing

Citizens Advice Bureau 0800 FOR CAB or 09 376 0392

MARK DAVIES: Brightline tax rules and fairness

We are bombarded with value judgments concerning “fairness”.

More and more we hear about this ‘fairness’ in our tax system (although generally we hear about how unfair the tax rules are). I’m not sure we can really expect ‘fairness’ from a tax system - fairness is not an absolute and everyone’s idea of what is fair is different, so it seems unlikely we will ever get agreement on a ‘fair’ tax system. However I do think we should expect transparency and honesty from the government we elect, around tax rules, how they work and what they are and are not designed to do.

In my opinion there is no better example of government dishonesty around our tax rules than in the area of the tax brightline rules. We were told these rules were designed to “ensure that those who buy residential property with the intention of selling for capital gain… pay their fair share of tax”.

When initially introduced the brightline rules potentially applied where residential land was acquired and then disposed of within a two year period (the ‘brightline period’). The rules were not perfect – it was quite clear from the outset that transactions involving residential land which were clearly not speculation would be caught. Some simple examples:

· Mum and Dad acquire a property together with their son or daughter as a way of helping the son or daughter get their first home. A sale of some or all of the home (even if to a family member) within two years that would be taxable;

· Mum and Dad have an investment property in their personal name. They have owned it for many years and intend the rent from it to supplement their national superannuation when they retire. They are advised that for asset protection reasons they should transfer some of their more valuable assets to their existing Trust. If they did this, and the Trust then disposed of the property within two years of acquiring it, the Trust would have been taxable on any gain it makes on the sale;

· Mum and Dad buy Gran a small flat so that the family can be near Gran and be close at hand to keep an eye on her and help her out if necessary. If Mum and Dad sold the flat within two years of buying it (Gran took ill and needed to be moved to a care facility), the sale by Mum and Dad would be taxable.

Although there were ‘imperfections’ in the rules leading to situations like those outlined above, the saving grace was that unless the acquisition and disposal of the property occurred within the relatively short period of two years the rules would not apply. Notwithstanding this, the rules should never have applied to situations like these where there is nothing resembling the ‘intention of selling for capital gain’ which the rules were supposedly designed to target, and they should never have applied to transfers within the ‘family group’, such as from parents to children, from individuals to family trusts, from a family company to its 100% shareholder, etc.

Last year the brightline period was extended to ten years. This merely exacerbated the situation where the rules apply to instances where there is no intention of selling for capital gain, since as the last few years has shown us, a great deal can change over a three year period let alone a ten year period.

At the very least one would have thought that while extending the brightline period, significant effort would be undertaken to modify the rules to attempt to ensure they no longer catch situations in which any intention of capital gain is insignificant or absent.

However while there has been a limited addressing of these problems, the amendments made to the rules (a) do not apply retrospectively so do not fix the ‘wrongs’ already done, and (b) merely note the possibility that remaining problems with the rules might be dealt with in the future.

This is not good enough. These tax rules significantly overreach their original stated intention, and many individuals are being caught by the rules when it was never the intention that those situations should result in a tax cost. It’s simply not honest for the government to pass these rules off as a tax on property speculation when many simple and largely altruistic family situations are resulting in unintended tax costs arising. (MARK DAVIES, Director of Tax for JACAL South)  PN

Logan Granger, Ponsonby Office

Disclaimer – While all care has been taken, Johnston Associates Chartered Accountants Ltd and its staff accept no liability for the content of this article; always see your professional advisor before taking any action that you are unsure about.

JOHNSTON ASSOCIATES, 202 Ponsonby Road, T: 09 361 6701, www.jacal.co.nz