Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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possibilities for reforming our current system. Suffice it to say here that in contrast
to the difficult­to­administer income tax regime, a complex and balanced network
of money systems favours taxes that are easily administered and simple, like land
value taxes.
But until we have some radical tax reform, how could a sizeable regional currency
be fair to central government? In the case of time dollars, these have been
exempted from income tax in the US on the grounds that they are service credits,
measured in hours, and so do not actually represent money. With other
complementary currencies, advocates argue that they should be accepted as
payment for income tax. One foreseeable problem of this is that if a regional
currency circulated eight times as fast as the national currency, then the newly
found prosperity of a region could well be stripped away from it by the Inland
Revenue Department. With regards goods and services tax (GST), mutual credit
systems are GST neutral since as a group members don’t owe anything – the GST
payable by members is exactly equal to the GST to be refunded.
There is also the problem of welfare benefit abatement. New Zealand’s Work and
Income Department (WINZ) currently recognises green dollars as income, so all
benefits (including accommodation allowance) are reduced to the extent the
beneficiary earns money. As more local currencies spring up, both the Inland
Revenue Department and WINZ will have to deal with the issues.