$194,000 Gift Duty Owing
Saturday, April 28th, 2007Well, I thought it would never happen. Labour had actually handed over the $824,524 to the Parliamentary Service.
Of course, having legalised the misspending, there was no legal debt. The Parliamentary Service under Margaret Wilson’s guidance never asked for the money back. As such, the $824,524 given to the Parliamentary Service is a gift.
At the rates detailed in the Inland Revenue’s Gift Duty Guide (IR194, PDF), my calculations have the Labour party owing $193,850 in gift duty. Here’s hoping that Inland Revenue is as vicious towards the Labour party as it is towards more productive members of society.
UPDATE: A correspondent has pointed out that Jeanette Fitzsimons agrees that the payment is “a gift, not a debt”.