ACT Laments Over Tax Working Group Report

ACT Leader David Seymour is surprised to learn that the Tax Working Group thinks ‘the tax system relies on a relatively narrow range of taxes and is not particularly progressive.'

“This will be news to anyone who’s done business in New Zealand. At 33 per cent, the top tax rate is more than three times the bottom tax rate of 10.5 per cent. It will certainly be news to the top 10 per cent of households who pay 37.2 per cent of all income tax.

“That there is a narrow range of taxes in New Zealand will be a shock to New Zealanders who pay income tax, company tax, GST, petrol tax, alcohol tax and tobacco tax. The idea that there should be more taxes on things like sugar seems otherworldly.

“A better approach to taxation would be to reduce spending. As the New Zealand Initiative reported just this week, we could save a third of our taxes just by improving the performance of Government departments to the standard of the world’s best performers.

“Far from having a narrow range of taxes that are not particularly progressive, New Zealanders are already taxed hard, if only we had a spending reduction working group!” laments Mr Seymour.

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