Authorities Apologize for Encouraging Parents to 'Tax' Halloween Sweets to Teach Kids Responsibility

new zealand Authorities Apologized to Parents Viral tweet Taxing Halloween Sweets Lolly Tax Inland Revenue Department New Zealand Lolly Tax for Kids to Learn Responsibility

By Jo Anne Hubert , Parent Herald Nov 02, 10:20 am

The Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand is under fire as online criticisms are thrown after tweeting a tax on Halloween treat hauls could benefit kids by learning about responsibility.

New Zealand's tax department was forced to apologize for encouraging parents to claim a "lolly tax" of up to 33% from their children's Halloween candy stash, The Guardian reported.

In a now deleted Twitter post on their official account, the Inland Revenue Department tweeted Sunday, "Gearing up for Halloween? Fun Fact: Parenting trends like a lollies tax teach kids responsibility by taking some of their lollies and taxing their trick-or-treat haul. The tax can be as much as one-third of the lollies earned on Halloween. Will you be celebrating?"

'The grinch of halloween'

The tweet instantly went viral and received backlash and negative criticisms from the public disappointed that after the 'cattle fart' tax issue, the authorities are surprisingly suggesting Halloween 'lollipop tax,' and it isn't at all funny.

The former leader of the National party Judith Collins named the IRD "the grinch of Halloween," and expressed that "spookiest thing" this Halloween was to have a peep into the weird thoughts of an IRD tax collector.

The backlash pushed IRD to delete the tweet and instead post an apology, expressing sorry if their post has offended anyone at all. Their tweet read that they received some "adverse" online comments against their post and so on reflection, decided to delete it and apologized, according to WION.

It can be recalled that this is not the first for New Zealand to make the headlines because of "bizarre policies." Just a month ago, it became the first country to tax cattle burps and urine emissions to curb agricultural emissions.

Powerful 'glimpse' into the NZ government's attitude

ACT New Zealand leader David Seymour expressed his anger and frustration over IRD's tweet in a statement published by Scoop.

He said that the public got to see the kind of culture the NZ government is setting for its departments, pushing the idea to tax everything they can, even children's lollies.

Seymour further stated that they can say that it was just a "light-hearted post," but it actually gave the New Zealnders a powerful glimpse into the character of its government. It reflects that this government does not believe in rewarding people, not even kids on Halloween. More so, it does not want to give but just wants to take.

The ACT leader also declared that the post just revealed how "incredibly out-of-touch Wellington bureaucrats are." They believe that responsibility means New Zealanders paying for taxes in order for them to survive, when real responsibility happens through people getting up every morning to work so that they can provide goods and services for their fellow citizens and for their community and create new wealth and opportunities, which ACT could actually do.