Is this the Kiwi way of life, to not pay your fair share?

To all the people out there who do not want to pay tax, have you not heard the saying “Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” (Benjamin Franklin).

Since when did “because we have worked hard all our lives” (Murray Allen, Letters, March 3) mean you should not pay your fair share? Is this the Kiwi way of life, to not pay your fair share?

Most Kiwis have worked hard all their lives, and often to make someone else rich.

Every business has used taxpayerfunded services to help their business prosper, so of course they should pay a capital gains tax when they sell it!

I've heard it being said that these tax bludgers will leave the country if a capital gains tax is introduced. They will be hard pressed to find a civilised country with lower taxes. In the UK and Australia you also pay stamp duty on every property you purchase (this would be a fair thing).

In Australia your pension will be means and asset tested.

If these non-payers go, I will be at the airport to wave them off! Diane Anderson, Sunnynook

Capital gains tax oversight

There seems to be an oversight in the proposed tax reform which could greatly impact low-income people on the low minimum wage. If a capital gains tax is implemeneted we should enjoy, as in Australia, the first $15,000 of income every year tax free — which would also stop IRD chasing paperboys and papergirls for tax on their small earnings and allow them to concentrate on the big tax avoidance and tax evasion that occurs. Murray Hunter, Titirangi

Pope address falls on deaf ears

Pope Francis at the conclusion of the recent summit said the “worldwide phenomenon of abuse” is “all the more grave and scandalous in the church”, incompatible with its “moral authority and ethical credibility”.

The Catholic Church, since his earlier direct address to perpetrators of clerical sexual abuse to “convert and hand yourself over to human justice, and prepare for divine justice”, has not had in my knowledge a collective or individual response.

Whom has voluntary stepped forward to acknowledge guilt or knowledge?

Doctrinally the Pope is believed and espoused to be the virtual “the voice of God”, for none to step forward defies belief, both in this individual’s view and in the minds of individuals within the hierocracy of the church; of their own creed.

Are the Catholic church’s beliefs an “absolute truth” or a convenience to be applied to serve an end and not a god?

Is the voice in the pulpit hypocritical? Should each sermon be prefaced with a declaration or oath?

“I swear that the evidence that I shall give, shall be the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.”

Followed by, “I have no knowledge of abuse nor have participated in abuse”.

Consequent revelations will reveal “the truth”. Paul Evans-McLeod, Pukete

Celibacy should be optional

Andrew Tichbon is quite right (Letters, March 3).

Allowing priests to marry would be a major step towards reducing the serious problem of sexual offending. I have thought so for years. Priests are human beings who, like the rest of us, are constantly bombarded by an increasingly blatant sex-obsessed society.

Making celibacy at least optional would also encourage far more young men to seriously consider becoming priests, of whom there is now a desperate shortage in the church.

Idealism is all very well, but we all have to live in the real world. John Hampson, Meadowbank

Hats off to Sadowski-Synnott

How could you put an article about Kim Dotcom on the front page (March 3) and relegate the fine achievement of Zoi Sadowski-Synnott’s snowboarding triple crown to page 47? And a very small writeup, which should have made top news.

I offer my heartiest congratulations to this fine and very young Kiwi athlete. Rosemary Howell, Meadowbank