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A proposed law will be introduced by the New Zealand government that will have every convicted criminal pay a $50 VICTIM TAX. It would offer a one-off payments to victims of serious crimes to cover costs not met by other state help.

Scrat;1112835 wrote: Sounds like an opportunity for abuse to me. I bet the lawyers will love it as I am sure they will get a cut.


I don't get it----------who and how abused?

JAB;1112843 wrote: 1x only tax payment or is it in perpetuity?


It would be a one time payment to victims to reimburse for things like travel expenses to appear in court, funeral expenses of those murdered in some cases. Victims have any number of expenses attributable to crimes against them.

JAB;1112857 wrote: $50 toward funeral expenses? Sounds rather insulting to me if I was the victim's family.


The $50 would be collected from each convicted criminal. The NZ government estimates that this would bring in about 5 million per year. From this fund victims would be paid.

JAB;1112860 wrote: I still think it's an insult. You murder someone and are then only required to pay $50 into a fund to cover funeral expenses? If you kill 2 people, is that a $100 fine then? 'Twould seem to me that criminals may feel this to be a small price to pay to get their end results.


Once again JAB----------it's not $50 to each victim, it's $50 from each convicted criminal that goes into a fund. The fund would pay out various sums of money to reimburse victims. Got it now?

JAB;1112867 wrote: I'm following you Lon but you're not following me.



My point is that if a criminal only has to pay $50 for each victim of his, it's a small price over all for him to pay even if the victim's family gets full expenses covered from the fund.


Now I gotcha--------I agree, $50 is a pittance for them to pay, but understand, New Zealand is so liberal when it comes to sentencing. Example----7 1/2 years for capital murder. If you happen to beat up a home invader you will probably be prosecuted, so the $50 is a real step in the right direction.

Lon;1112877 wrote: Now I gotcha--------I agree, $50 is a pittance for them to pay, but understand, New Zealand is so liberal when it comes to sentencing. Example----7 1/2 years for capital murder. If you happen to beat up a home invader you will probably be prosecuted, so the $50 is a real step in the right direction.


wow, and I thought NZ was perfect! :p

The reality is though, is that the criminal is already most likely having his lawyer covered by public service which is being paid for by the tax payer. The criminal will probably have this charge included in the overall costs of his defense, therefore the tax payer will end up paying the $50, meaning that not only is the victim already paying for this persons defense, but they are now also be providing the $50 that they will get back.

Does NZ not already have a Proceeds Of Crime Act like the UK does? Where the entire estate of every convicted criminal can be confiscated down to the last dollar up to the amount estimated by the court to have come from criminal activity, with the onus on the criminal to show that it didn't? I thought it did.

The problem with how much of what's confiscated goes to which destination is a contentious one here. It was decided immediately that it wouldn't go to any taxing authority or to substitute for any taxation commitment. In the UK we ended up allocating all the confiscated assets to the police force (including Customs and Excise) which brought the prosecution, to be handled independently by the force from properly allocated running tax payments.

I don't see why that entire confiscated money shouldn't entirely go toward a Victim Compensation Scheme. It doesn't bring in $5 million a year here, it brings in over a £1 billion last time I looked. I'd not guarantee the figure but I bet I'm close.

But the Victims Compensation scheme has rather less clout than twenty odd Chief Constables so it all went to the boys in blue.

spot;1113271 wrote: Does NZ not already have a Proceeds Of Crime Act like the UK does? Where the entire estate of every convicted criminal can be confiscated down to the last dollar up to the amount estimated by the court to have come from criminal activity, with the onus on the criminal to show that it didn't? I thought it did.



The problem with how much of what's confiscated goes to which destination is a contentious one here. It was decided immediately that it wouldn't go to any taxing authority or to substitute for any taxation commitment. In the UK we ended up allocating all the confiscated assets to the police force (including Customs and Excise) which brought the prosecution, to be handled independently by the force from properly allocated running tax payments.



I don't see why that entire confiscated money shouldn't entirely go toward a Victim Compensation Scheme. It doesn't bring in $5 million a year here, it brings in over a £1 billion last time I looked. I'd not guarantee the figure but I bet I'm close.



But the Victims Compensation scheme has rather less clout than twenty odd Chief Constables so it all went to the boys in blue.


Yes--I just looked it up---NZ does have a PCA.



"The Proceeds of Crime Act 1991 permits Police to apply to have the assets that a criminal has used to commit a serious crime or which they have obtained from crime, or purchased with the profits of crime, forfeited to the Crown.

Under this Act, if someone is convicted of an offence that carries at least a five year maximum penalty, then the Police may apply to have any of their assets related to the offence forfeited to the Crown."



I'm not sure how these funds are used. I'll do a bit more searching and see what I can find

Lon;1112824 wrote: A proposed law will be introduced by the New Zealand government that will have every convicted criminal pay a $50 VICTIM TAX. It would offer a one-off payments to victims of serious crimes to cover costs not met by other state help.


woah, now that will make the victims families feel so much better!:rolleyes:

Lon;1112824 wrote: A proposed law will be introduced by the New Zealand government that will have every convicted criminal pay a $50 VICTIM TAX. It would offer a one-off payments to victims of serious crimes to cover costs not met by other state help.


That's interesting Lon, but it should really be a lot more that $50...