The tweak to the top tax rate was hardly a surprise given NZ voters’ continuing acceptance of a distortionary system that leaves capital gains largely exempt, writes Geof Nightingale. Labour tax policy, announced last week, was pretty brief: a new 39% marginal tax rate on income over $180,000 to raise $550m of new tax revenue. … Read more
New Zealand’s narrow tax base benefits the wealthy and punishes the poor, says taxation academic Jonathan Barrett – and neither major party seems to want to do anything about it. Ability to pay is the basic principle of tax fairness: people in a similar financial position should pay similar amounts of tax; people who can … Read more
Budget 2019: Unless we can find some way of taxing wealth as well as incomes, New Zealand is headed for an intergenerational economic meltdown, writes Grant Thornton tax partner Murray Brewer. It’s hard to get your head around how much money the government has. The slew of spending announcements in the run-up to Budget Day makes … Read more
Budget 2019: Should the collection of taxes be the point at which we talk about fairness, or should fairness be part of a completely different conversation, asks Grant Thornton tax partner Oksana Simonoff. It’s counter-intuitive, but when we talk about tax fairness we aren’t really talking about tax. We’re really talking about politics, economics and … Read more
Business consultant and Treaty commentator Joshua Hitchcock looks at the terms of reference for the new Tax Working Group and asks: how can the tax system create a more equitable outcome for Māori? The Spinoff is hosting Tax Heroes – a series covering tax, who pays it and what it means. Click here to read … Read more
New Zealand is one of the most profitable credit card markets in the world, one that’s dominated by Visa and Mastercard. Both companies benefit from sweetheart tax deals from being based in Singapore, but with increased scrutiny on international tech behemoths over their tax records, is it time for us to take a closer look … Read more
Just how hard is it to win an election and successfully lead a government? Seems easy enough, but there’s only one way to find out for sure: simulate it in a computer game. This was originally published on September 1. No actual politics game measures up to the ideal politics game for which I yearn. … Read more
The government has announced an increase in the minimum wage, but tax consultant Terry Baucher says a shift in tax brackets might make us all better off. In response to our low wage economy the new government has committed to raising the minimum wage from $16.50 an hour progressively to $20.21 per hour by 2020. Aside … Read more
Any political party wanting a fairer, more productive New Zealand needs to address the issue of the taxation of capital, argues Terry Baucher. This story was originally published on interest.co.nz. Earlier this week, interest.co.nz editor Gareth Vaughan asked me whether a New Zealand political party could ever sell the idea of a capital gains tax … Read more
The Block NZ signifies everything that’s wrong with our tax system. Takapuna tax expert Terry Baucher fills Rebecca Stevenson in on how we can get a lump of cash, and keep it all to ourselves. After we all recovered from the horror that was The Block NZ finale, it’s a good time to learn why … Read more
As the campaign enters its final weekend, Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson have attempted to lance the boil, pledging Labour won’t introduce new tax changes before 2021. Now the attacks will switch from tax to leadership, writes Toby Manhire It was a “captain’s call” to push open the door to significant changes in the tax … Read more
Just how hard is it to win an election and successfully lead a government? Seems easy enough, but there’s only one way to find out for sure: simulate it in a computer game. No actual politics game measures up to the ideal politics game for which I yearn. What I want is basically a straight … Read more
Jacinda Ardern has outsourced Labour’s decision on a capital gains tax to a working group. But why? It’s time we stopped treating tax working groups as the magical solution to problems in the tax system, writes Jess Berentson-Shaw. Melchett: Field Marshal Haig has formulated a brilliant new tactical plan. Blackadder: Ah. Would this brilliant plan involve us … Read more
Budget 2017: We invited Eric Crampton to make the argument for a tax cut. Here he offers the case for a modest cut to reflect inflation, the case for a more substantial cut, and, for good measure, a dumb case Read all our Budget 2017 coverage here. There are a lot of dumb cases for … Read more
You could be forgiven for thinking support for a Universal Basic Income comes only from Gareth Morgan and the more radical parts of the left. But as financial adviser Michael Warrington points out, the UBI has a lot to recommend it whatever your political outlook. Gareth Morgan’s proposals around tax and the Universal Basic Income (UBI) … Read more
The government has announced a new set of tax proposals aimed at getting multinationals like Apple and Facebook to pay more on their NZ earnings. But do they go far enough? And what about a diverted profits tax? Taxation expert Andrea Black breaks it down. Waking up on Wednesday morning I found I had emails … Read more
New Zealand’s greatest reality show doesn’t only offer a window into the lives of the rich and shameless, says Max Rashbrooke. It’s also a perfect distillation of how the country’s wealth is increasingly being concentrated at the top. In the first episode of Real Housewives of Auckland, Louise Wallace introduces herself with the immortal line, … Read more
The prime minister has suggested his lawyer was sloppy in his choice of wording in an email two years ago. Now, on assurances regarding Mossack Fonseca, is the sloppiness getting even sloppier? On April 13, the prime minister was widely reported as saying he had been assured that his longstanding personal lawyer, Ken Whitney, had … Read more
Land tax is a good idea. But the proposal to lump it on non-residents alone just invites go-betweens to take advantage. Time for a properly coherent tax policy, argues Gareth Morgan. John Key has floated the idea of an annual land tax on foreign buyers of residential real estate as one response to the influx … Read more