Gee I just looked up how things work in NZ, what a dogs...

Gee I just looked up how things work in NZ, what a dogs breakfast. So much room for ambiguity. How can you ever say that you bought EXR for the purposes of a dividend, or rather to be specific, NOT with the primary intention of selling for a profit. The entire strategy for most people here is to hold until the company gets exited to one of the majors ...

Having said this, CGT annoys the hell out of me in Australia. I risk MY capital, and then the government takes half of the profit it so they can waste on total BS.

The CGT discount in this country is absurd to me too. It provides an incentive to NOT exit at the right moment. As an investor / trader, the incentive should be to exit the position at the right time, without some cloud of 'should I wait, if I wait I pay less tax'.

I would support a financial services transaction tax in lieu of CGT. Government would then clip the ticket on every single transaction, regardless of success/failure. This would stop stupid bots and HFT, whilst enabling the correct exit decisions to be made wither they be 1 month or 10 years after the date of purchase.