The last election resulted in a landslide win for the NZ Labour Party, allowing it to govern alone. The polls this time look closer and it appears the next Government will require a coalition of parties.
We have attempted to summarise the tax (and selected other fiscal and economic) policies of the following political parties as at the date of this taxmail (13 September 2023):
- ACT New Zealand (“ACT”)
- Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand (“Green”)
- New Zealand Labour Party (“Labour”)
- Te Pāti Māori
- New Zealand National Party (“National”)
- New Zealand First (“NZ First”)
- The Opportunities Party (“TOP”)
We leave readers to make their own judgements on the different tax policies. To assist with your evaluation, and to compare and contrast, we have also included a summary of the current tax settings as well as the recommendations of the 2019 Tax Working Group, in its final report.
As with all policy settings, there are no perfect solutions. All taxes and tax changes involve trade-offs. What you are willing to trade off will inevitably include some value judgements. One framework for considering the different tax policies is against the various tax principles contained in the recently passed Tax Principles Reporting Bill (you can read more about the Tax Principles Reporting Bill here: May new Tax Bills introduced - KPMG New Zealand.)
