{"id":6387,"date":"2023-07-12T11:56:20","date_gmt":"2023-07-11T23:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6387"},"modified":"2023-07-12T11:56:20","modified_gmt":"2023-07-11T23:56:20","slug":"hipkins-rules-out-capital-gains-tax-wealth-tax-if-labour-re-elected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=6387","title":{"rendered":"Hipkins rules out capital gains tax, wealth tax if Labour re-elected"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chris Hipkins has ruled out introducing a wealth tax or capital gains tax if Labour is re-elected in October.<\/p>\n

“I’m confirming today that under a government I lead there will be no wealth or capital gains tax after the election. End of story,” Hipkins said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Hipkins said with many New Zealanders struggling with the cost of living it was “simply not the time” for big changes to the tax system.<\/p>\n

“New Zealanders I talk to want certainty and continuity right now, and that’s what I’m delivering with this policy,” he said.<\/p>\n

Speculation of a Labour tax policy has been rife since Hipkins became prime minister, with his predecessor\u00a0Jacinda Ardern’s promise not to introduce a capital gains tax<\/a>\u00a0during her leadership coming to an end.<\/p>\n

That was only fuelled by Revenue Minister David Parker commissioning\u00a0a study from Inland Revenue<\/a>\u00a0which found the wealthiest families paid less than half the amount of tax compared to other New Zealanders.<\/p>\n

The pledge conflicts with\u00a0Green Party policy<\/a>\u00a0– who, polling has consistently showed, Labour would need to form a government – to introduce an “income guarantee” of a tax-free bracket for all earnings under $10,000. It would be funded by a new tax bracket of 45 percent on income over $180,000, and a 2.5 percent wealth tax on assets.<\/p>\n

Hipkins said work had been under way on experimenting with a wealth or capital gains tax as part of a tax switch in the Budget, but decided instead to\u00a0only adjust the tax rate paid by trusts<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I ultimately made the call not to proceed with [the tax switch]. We simply didn’t have a mandate to implement those,” he said.<\/p>\n

He said the tax cuts long proposed by National were “unaffordable and inflationary”.<\/p>\n

“Just as we are getting on top of price increases, they would borrow to deliver an inflationary sugar hit. National’s uncosted and unfair tax changes would deliver the biggest cuts to millionaires and CEOs while offering while offering as little as $2 a week to some low and middle income households.<\/p>\n

“Some people might call it boring, but the times call for restraint and simple and smart policies which grow our economy, help drive inflation down and provide targeted help to those families who need it the most.”<\/p>\n

‘The time for tinkering is over’ – Greens<\/h3>\n

In response, Greens co-leader James Shaw said political leaders did not get to decide what would or would not happen after the election.<\/p>\n

“That’s the job of the New Zealand public. Nothing Labour says now will stop the Green Party from fighting for a fairer tax system. Polling shows the majority of New Zealanders support a wealth tax. Our plan will cut taxes and make 95 percent of New Zealanders better off by asking the wealthiest 0.7 percent to pay their fair share.”<\/p>\n

He said governments had been tinkering for too long.<\/p>\n

“Households are struggling, our tax system has never been more unfair, and the solutions have never been clearer. The time for tinkering is over, the time for political courage is now – the only option this year is the Green Party.<\/p>\n

“Governments have been tinkering at the edges – constrained by self-imposed refusal to tax the wealthy – instead of taking the bold decisions people need right now. If political leaders are not willing to take those decisions on behalf of the people of the country you purport to lead, then why be in politics at all?”<\/p>\n

Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Hipkins has ruled out introducing a wealth tax or capital gains tax if Labour is re-elected in October. “I’m confirming today that under a government I lead there will be no wealth or capital gains tax after the election. End of story,” Hipkins said in a statement. Hipkins said with many New Zealanders struggling […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":6388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387","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=6387"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6389,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6387\/revisions\/6389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}