Keith Melville

In her opinion piece last Wednesday, Labour list MP Jo Luxton says Prime Minister Chris Luxon “is quite happy handing $2.9 billion to landlords” when at the same time he seemingly is not interested in providing free healthy food for Kiwi kids.

While I doubt whether the PM would agree with Ms Luxton’s statement on school lunches, I am more concerned about her misleading and sarcastic comment on what she describes as a $2.9 billion giveaway to landlords.

She is referring to what is commonly, misleadingly and mischievously known as the Landlord tax break, which was withdrawn by the previous Labour-led Government and replaced, effectively, with a discriminatory tax penalty aimed solely at private landlords and imposed against the advice of Inland Revenue.

That penalty was removed by the National-led coalition to restore the neutrality of the tax system.

This again gives landlords the right to claim tax deductibility on their interest costs, in line with every other business.

Does Ms Luxton believe that private landlords should be singled out for a discriminatory penalty when all other businesses, including her own childcare business, have the right to claim interest deductibility as a valid business cost for tax purposes?

Disclosure: I own a residential rental property, but I do not claim interest as a deductible cost.