Jason Walls: ZB Political Editor on released IRD report finding wealthy pay half tax rate of average Kiwis

The wealthiest New Zealanders pay tax at half the rate of ordinary people, an IRD report has found.

An IRD study into the tax rate paid by a sample of 311 New Zealanders found they paid a median effective tax rate of 9.4 per cent.

Treasury reckons a comparable tax rate for a “middle wealth” Kiwi was 20.2 per cent - that rate includes GST they pay and any benefits someone might receive like Working for Families. If you leave those out, their tax rate is even higher.

The median wealth of the families was $106 million - but a handful of extremely wealthy people meant the mean wealth of those families was $276m.

Revenue Minister David Parker said the report showed “tradies, nurses, school teachers, hospitality workers, hairdressers, cleaners, engineers and small business owners all pay much higher effective tax rates than their wealthier fellow Kiwis.

“We tax those who earn all their income from salaries at a much higher rate than the very wealthy,” he said.

The culprit in all of this is capital gains, which are largely untaxed in New Zealand.

Newstalk ZB Political Editor Jason Walls told Simon Barnett and James Daniels there hasn't been an announcement on whether the Government will do about it.

"We have an election right around the corner, so we wait with baited breath to see if they have anything up their sleeve."

Walls says with an outright majority in he 2020 election, Labour could have easily passed a capital gains tax at any stage.

"I think it's a bit disingenuous of the Government to have this report right at the end of the tenure, where they have an outright majority and say they're going to be putting it to the electorate and we're going to campaign on this one."

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