The PM is SHOCKED!

Now, what brought this on I wonder?
Key attacks rich people who claim welfare - National - NZ Herald News

Prime Minister John Key says wealthy people who are legally manipulating their financial affairs to ensure they benefit from Working for Families are "rorting the system" in a way that is unfair on other taxpayers.

A Treasury paper for the Tax Working Group says 9700 families with investment properties also receive Working for Families tax credits - and many were boosting their entitlements by offsetting their incomes against rental losses on their properties.

The paper also said there was growing evidence high-earners were using other ways to "shelter" their incomes to ensure they maximised what they could get from Working for Families.

The former Labour finance minister also says that this was not brought to his attention as minister.

Oh come on boys, give us a break. The rich have ALWAYS rorted the system, they have always used their accountants to create tax shelters that enable them to avoid paying tax and, if the shelter didn't exist, they have been damned successful at getting successive governments to create them.

Evidence: when we paid off our mortgage a few years ago the so-called financial adviser we had at the time declared that the next step was to get us into more debt. The sole reason for doing so was to use the engineered losses on the "investment" to generate tax rebates.

Always with the threat that if the state did not comply they would up stakes and take their money somewhere else.

On the other hand, I look forward eagerly to the publication of the names of these families, the amount they have received in benefits and the value of the shelters behind which they stash their money.

As usual, Tumeke is on the ball.