{"id":4136,"date":"2023-04-28T05:28:41","date_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:28:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4136"},"modified":"2023-04-28T05:28:41","modified_gmt":"2023-04-27T17:28:41","slug":"proving-the-wealthiest-new-zealanders-pay-low-tax-rates-is-a-good-start-now-comes-the-hard-part","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4136","title":{"rendered":"Proving the wealthiest New Zealanders pay low tax rates is a good start \u2013 now comes the hard part"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If nothing else, the just released Inland Revenue study of the tax rates paid by the wealthiest New Zealanders should put to rest the notion we have a progressive tax system. We don&#8217;t.<\/p>\n<p>A progressive system is one where higher earners pay more as their income grows.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/national\/488705\/wealthiest-paying-tax-at-much-lower-rate-than-most-other-new-zealanders-ird-report\">The report<\/a>, commissioned by Minister of Revenue and Attorney-General David Parker, has revealed the country&#8217;s wealthiest are paying a median effective tax rate of 9.5 percent (including GST).<\/p>\n<p>This is less than half the tax paid by middle income earners at 22 percent, or nearly 30 percent if you include GST. But while many commentators have asked how such a low tax rate is possible, the real question should be what happens next?<\/p>\n<p>Will the government change the tax code to include a robust capital gains tax? In a hotly contested election year, is there much\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/news\/political\/488723\/capital-gains-tax-back-in-spotlight-after-tax-reports-on-new-zealand-s-wealthiest-released\">political will<\/a>\u00a0to target the core source of income for New Zealand&#8217;s richest people?<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the answers, we should first recognise just how important this report is. The now decommissioned Tax Working Group, of which I was a member, called for this study to be completed. It is satisfying to see the country now has better information on which to base its tax decisions.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>SOURCE RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If nothing else, the just released Inland Revenue study of the tax rates paid by the wealthiest New Zealanders should put to rest the notion we have a progressive tax system. We don&#8217;t. A progressive system is one where higher earners pay more as their income grows.\u00a0The report, commissioned by Minister of Revenue and Attorney-General [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":4137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4138,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4136\/revisions\/4138"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}