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List of all DNC authorised registrars is available with .nz domain name pricing and other details. Please be advised that the list is out of date but it will be updated in future.
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Thursday, 30 June 2005
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The tax debate
Here is a story unrelated to .nz domain names (not even related to .nz tax debate :-)
Suppose that every night, 10 men go out for dinner at the same restaurant every night.
The bill for all 10 comes to $100. They decided to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, and it went like this:
* The first person (the poorest) paid nothing.
* The second paid $1.
* The third $3.
* The fourth and fifth $4 each.
* The sixth $5.
* The seventh $7.
* The eighth $8
* The ninth $20
* The tenth man (the richest) paid $48.
All 10 were quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner said "Since you are all such good customers, I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the 10 only cost $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes.
The first person was unaffected. They would still eat for free.
But how should the other nine, the paying customers, divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get their "fair share"?
They realised that $20 divided by nine is $2.22. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the second person would end up being paid to eat. The owner suggested that the total reduced bill would be based as before, on the way they pay their taxes.
The owner got out his trusty calculator and issued the revised amounts to each person.
* The first person (the poorest) still paid nothing.
* The second paid 80 cents, down from $1
* The third $2.40 down from $3
* The fourth and fifth $3.20 each, a savings of 80 cents each.
* The sixth $4 saving $1
* The seventh $5.60 down from $7
* The eighth $6.40 a savings of $1.60
* The ninth $16 down from $20
* The tenth man (the richest) paid $38.40 saving $9.60
Each of the nine was better off, but outside the restaurant, they began to compare their savings.
"I only got 20 cents out of the $20," declared the second man. He pointed to the tenth man "but he got almost $10!"
"That's right," exclaimed the sixth man. "I only saved a dollar!”
It's unfair that he got ten times more than me!"
"That's true!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10 back when I got only $1.40? The wealthy get all the breaks!"
"Wait a minute," yelled the first person. "I didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth person didn't show up for dinner. The nine sat down and ate without him, but when they came to pay the bill, they discovered that they only had the money between all of them to meet half of the bill!
That, boys and girls, journalists, college professors, special interest people, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being 'wealthy', and they just may not show up at the table anymore.
PS This is my addition to the tax debate tonight and I should add (before others 'out me') that I am in the top 2% of 'tax payers' in New Zealand.
PPS I used the figures at http://www.treasury.govt.nz/budget2005/taxpayers/ for the breakdown of 'the bill'.
4:37:31 PM
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© Copyright 2007 Foxbane Ltd and Steven Heath.
Last update: 9/07/2007; 10:29:41 p.m..
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