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Speaker 1: Pre budget, no shortage of noise about tax cuts. Of course,

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Speaker 1: how we couldn't afford them all. We'll ask a sole

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Speaker 1: trader you might find a different answer. We've got a

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Speaker 1: survey show seventy seven percent support for lowering the second

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Speaker 1: bracket tax rate from seventeen point five to fifteen point

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Speaker 1: five percent, seventy four percent support for a two percent

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Speaker 1: tax credit for self employed people, and a fifty seven

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Speaker 1: percent support level for lowering income tax rates by profession.

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Speaker 1: Now there's an idea, Henry CEEO James Fuller Willis, good morning,

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Speaker 1: Good morning. Questions I found very interesting and we'll work

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Speaker 1: through them in a couple of minutes. What were you

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Speaker 1: looking to find out in the way you're asking these questions?

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Speaker 2: When we do this this survey quarterly we asked sole

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Speaker 2: traders around their businesses, how they're feeling too eutonomic from

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Speaker 2: a personal standpoint, and so prior to the budget, we

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Speaker 2: went out to sole traders to say, what are the

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Speaker 2: things that you would like to see from the government

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Speaker 2: when it comes to supporting the sole trader sector.

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Speaker 1: Okay, and were you surprised by the results?

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Speaker 2: Well, not particularly. I mean, sole traders make up about

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Speaker 2: four hundred thousand businesses in New Zealand, and so it's

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Speaker 2: no surprise that they would want to see themselves be

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Speaker 2: recognized by the government with some fiscal policies that they

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Speaker 2: believe could really help inject some life into what is

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Speaker 2: quite a stagnant economy.

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Speaker 1: The reason I asked the question is because, of course,

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Speaker 1: if you followed the media, every man and his dog

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Speaker 1: has his hand out at the moment, and we can't

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Speaker 1: afford tax cuts, and we need even more money for

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Speaker 1: the government to spend on even more things. And yet

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Speaker 1: suddenly you find four hundred thousand New Zealand doers who

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Speaker 1: think completely differently.

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Speaker 2: Well, it's interesting. I don't think soul traders are looking

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Speaker 2: for a handout here. They're really just coming up with

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Speaker 2: fresh ideas to not only stimulate the economy but also

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Speaker 2: to keep pace with other OECD countries. So we know

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Speaker 2: from recently the government is looking to other countries for

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Speaker 2: policy ideas, whether that's Estonia, and these are interesting ideas

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Speaker 2: that soult traders are supporting that do make sure we

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Speaker 2: can keep pace with the likes of France or the Netherlands,

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Speaker 2: who have specifically recognized the benefit that Soule traders bring

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Speaker 2: to their economy.

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Speaker 1: Does it get complicated? Seventy four percent support for a

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Speaker 1: two percent tax credit. Once you go down you can

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Speaker 1: have a bit here and a bit there. Does it

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Speaker 1: get administratively complex?

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Speaker 2: Well? I think what's interesting is we've seen the government

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Speaker 2: in the last few weeks make what I would say

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Speaker 2: would be sort of sledgehammer changes to the tax system,

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Speaker 2: whereas I think what we're talking about here is more

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Speaker 2: of taking a scalpel in certain areas. So if you

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Speaker 2: look at the sort of fifty seven percent that support

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Speaker 2: lowering income tax rates by professions to encourage more people

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Speaker 2: to become self employed, you have this brain drain in

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Speaker 2: sectors like nursing, in the trades where people are going

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Speaker 2: across the tasment. So actually do it looking to do

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Speaker 2: what they do in France, which has to incentivize people

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Speaker 2: to stay in those trades or to go into those trades,

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Speaker 2: is a great way of simulating those specific parts of

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Speaker 2: the economy.

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you raise that because that's a lot of

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Speaker 1: support fifty seven percent. But when you go by a profession,

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Speaker 1: I mean there's Jesus, I mean what am I Am

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Speaker 1: I a broadcaster? Am I a nurse amy, a builder,

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Speaker 1: and I mean I could be anything I want, couldn't I.

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Speaker 1: And that's where your problem rises.

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Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't, it doesn't. I mean, ID already takes

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Speaker 2: off of what people do, and you look at the

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Speaker 2: whole acc system is already set up to charge based

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Speaker 2: on people's exact profession. So we already have this data

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Speaker 2: within government. It's surely just a case of actually enacting

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Speaker 2: those calculation changes at a government let.

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Speaker 1: And you would argue they've got the weird with all

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Speaker 1: to do that if they really wanted to. So it's

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Speaker 1: just a mindset that needs changing.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's about recognizing soul traders and the

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Speaker 2: benefit that they bring to the economy. I think there's

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Speaker 2: been a big, sort of a glutted understanding of some

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Speaker 2: successive governments about whose sul traders are and what value

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Speaker 2: they bring. And what we're seeing from this survey is

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Speaker 2: that forty four percent of sul traders believe they'll act

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Speaker 2: to be worse off due to the government's cup decisions,

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Speaker 2: and then induitional fourteen percent aren't actually confident that the

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Speaker 2: government can deliver on these election promises.

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Speaker 1: Very good, Indeed, James appreciate your time James Fuller, who

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Speaker 1: is the Henry spelt h r Y these days the CEO.

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Speaker 1: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to

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