It’s not pinching from kids, some politicians while pinch themselves when they realise they’ve gone off half cocked on this.

Much has been made of taking a tax credit away from children, like paper boys and paper girls. The critics have been a bit premature jumping in on this, including a lineup from Labour (I’ve heard David Shearer, Grant Robertson, David Parker, David Cunliffe and David Clark), and Winston Peters. Either that or they are deliberately trying to mislead.

From Peter Dunne’s speech in the house today:

These transitional rules will provide employers with time to update their payroll systems.

I have described these tax credits as out-dated, Mr Speaker.  Allow me to illustrate.

When the tax credit for income under $9,880 for example, was first introduced, it was aimed at people on a fulltime annual salary of less than $10,000.

Times and salaries have moved on significantly since that time, and the tax credit no longer applies to the group it was originally established to support.

Similarly, the child tax credit was a transitional measure introduced by Sir Robert Muldoon in 1978 – in an era when most employers did not deduct tax at source.

Now they do, so the credit has become similarly outdated.

So they tax credit changes are tidying up old obsolete tax law.

And the “paper boys” argument is a myth. Those who deliver suburban papers most likely earn under the $2,340 exemption.