Hard data confirms fundamental unfairness in the NZ tax system: The time to champion the future fairness of tax is now!
Tax Justice Aotearoa (TJA) applauds the release of data from the IRD’s High Wealth Individuals Research Project today, which confirms an extreme inequity between the top end of wealth in New Zealand and middle-income earners.
“The 8.9% (mean) effective tax rate paid by this sample of New Zealand’s wealthiest is far too low, and if GST is included only rises to 9.4%. The shocking disparities highlighted by this research demands further action,” says TJA spokesperson Glenn Barclay.
“Compared to a year ago when New Zealand was, at best, only able to exercise guesswork on what that rate was, we have now leapt above other countries in our knowledge of the actual facts. This research really is groundbreaking.
“We are encouraged that the Minister has recommitted to seeing the passage of a Tax Principles Act into law and to, as he put it, ‘re-reading’ other recommendations of the Tax Working Group from 2019. More work needs to be done.”
Note: Tax Justice Aotearoa will continue to promote an informed debate on tax throughout 2023 and has commenced a PledgeMe fundraiser at bit.ly/fairtax2023 for that purpose.
