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Learning experience 4: Young people and tax
Key conceptual understandings
That young people’s economic decision-making can affect society.
That young people can influence policy decision-making about taxation.
Finding out information:
How are young people taxed? What are young people’s responsibilities regarding tax?
Cartoon
Show students the Tax returns cartoon. Brainstorm as a class what the students know about how to go about their tax responsibilities, filling in forms, choosing rates, annual returns.
Ask the students to find out the following information from the What’s Tax website:
- When do you have to start paying tax?
- What’s a tax rebate?
- What’s a tax refund?
- What fees can be taken out of your pay?
Ask them to locate on the website the information that young people need to find out about tax. Ask the students to say how they would improve it.
Considering decisions and responses:
How do the economic choices I make affect society? What different choices could I make?
Choices
Introduce the Choices cartoon. Have the students discuss what this cartoon might mean in relation to taxation.
Future issues
Have the students consider the following three tasks, through three lenses: what might be possible in the future, what is probable, what they would prefer to happen. Have the students record their answer in a pie-chart diagram.
1. Find out about the amount of money owed to the Government by people who have student loans. Consider the future opportunities and challenges of the student loan system for individuals and New Zealand society.
2. Find out about unemployment benefits for young people. Think about the challenges to the country of increasing numbers of young people going onto an unemployment benefit in the future. Also, what opportunities would a situation like this present? The articles
may be useful stimulus here.
3. What do you think will be priorities for spending by New Zealand governments and councils in five years time, ten years time, fifty years time, compared to today.
Working through the consequences
Ask the students to form pairs or groups and discuss what the consequences might be in relation to the following scenarios, using the following questions:
- Who or what is affected by my choice?
- What benefits might my choice give others?
- What harms might my choice cause others?
- What other options could I choose?
- What other option will produce the most benefit and the least harm?
Scenarios:
- “I’m going to university – I’ll have a student loan of $60,000 when I come out. That’s OK as I’ll go overseas and won’t need to pay it back.
- “I’m leaving school on my birthday. I don’t need a job cause the government will give me money to go on the dole. I’m sweet.”
- “I’m not going to university – I can’t afford it.”
- “I’m going to uni. I will get a student allowance because my parents can hide their real earnings behind costs for the business they run.”
- “I'm working part time at the supermarket to help fund my study.”
- “I'll save my dole money and go on holiday.”
- “I’m going to pay back my student loan fast.”
Considering decisions and responses:
Who can influence tax policy and how?
PMI chart
Have the students identify issues about taxation policy relevant to young people, for example, youth tax credits, what it would mean to take out a student loan to fund tertiary study, or be on an unemployment benefit.
Ask them to record their views about their selected issue on a PMI chart. Ask them to list the Plus (positive), Minus (negative), and Interesting points. Then ask them to consider whether they agree with the policy decisions that have been made. Where they don’t agree get them to decide what they could do to change those decisions.
Reflecting and evaluating:
What should other young people know about tax decision-making?
Concept mapping
Have the students return to the concept mapping exercise they did in Learning Experience 1. Provide the students with a fresh set of concepts and sheet of paper, and ask them to redesign their concept map in light of what they know now. Discuss the differences between their first and second concept map. What do they feel they have learnt?
Then ask the students to highlight those parts of the concept map that they feel other students should know about. This will lead into the next ‘Now what?’ activity.
Assessment opportunity
This is an important source of assessment information for you as a teacher to identify the shifts in students’ conceptual understanding in relation to the achievement objective.
Now what? What can we do with this information?
How could it positively influence others?
Informing others
Have the students make a pamphlet or an online advertisement titled ‘Young person’s guide to paying tax' with a flow chart showing the steps young people need to follow when they start earning any type of income and have to pay tax.
Ask the students to design a poster encouraging young people to comply with their tax obligations and not try to beat the system. Make it humorous but relevant to the target age group.
Ask the students to consider what could be done to teach people facts about tax, and to encourage them to pay their tax as responsible citizens.
Ask them to design an activity, for example, an online game or reality TV show, intended to achieve this outcome, remembering to keep it relevant to young people.
Why pay tax: Next learning steps
Use the questions in the ‘Reflecting and evaluating’, ‘So what’, and ‘Now what’ sections of the social inquiry overview to establish the next learning steps with your students. There may be particular local and current issues that students are interested in exploring further and areas of knowledge that they need to develop in more depth.
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