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The best way to tackle the gang issue is to set the IRD on them, ACT Party leader David Seymour says.
"We've got to get the focus on gangs dealing illegal drugs ruining lives, and the IRD has powers we think should be directed onto them," Seymour told Newshub Nation on Saturday.
Seymour maintains gangs are not paying their share of tax and says while there has been half a billion dollars of 'P' there has only been $50m of asset forfeitures by police. "Now, that is like a 10 per cent tax."
He says IRD can set the record straight, "Inland Revenue Department are the scariest department."
"They do have very extensive powers that other departments don't to investigate taxation and they do have an information-sharing arrangement with police and other agencies on gangs. We don't believe they're using it. If you Google gangs and IRD, the first result you get is a sheep sharing gang that didn't pay their tax," Seymour said.
Challenged by Newshub Nation that ACT's 'big new gang policy' is simply 'to request information, using a questionnaire from the IRD', Seymour said "You are never going to stop the scourge of drugs and the damage that it does while it remains profitable. If you don't make it unprofitable, you won't stop it."