Tax Policy Statement

Better Taxes Coalition lead organisation, Tax Justice Aotearoa, has released its Tax Policy Statement. The Statement sets out a mix of practical proposals that together could rebalance our tax system so that it delivers for ordinary New Zealanders.

The Statement points out two key problems with our tax system:

• We’re a low tax country: Right now we’re not gathering enough revenue to fund the things that matter for us to live good lives, like fully staffed hospitals and affordable housing, resilient infrastructure and nutritious school lunches.
• We tax work more than wealth: We rely very heavily on income tax and GST, so working people are carrying more of the load of funding our public services. Our failure to properly tax wealth and big corporates is increasing inequality, eroding living standards and opportunities (like home ownership) for ordinary people

And offers real solutions that will close the gaps in big corporate tax and ensure the wealthiest pay their fair share, to support everyone in Aotearoa New Zealand to live good lives.

You can read the full report here or check out our breakdown of key policy proposals here.

Polling has shown there’s strong support for funding our public services properly and for ensuring the wealthiest and big corporates pay their fair share of tax, but successive governments have failed to act.  The Statement sets out a roadmap to a better tax system, now it’s up to us to put pressure on our political leaders to make this vision a reality.

We’ve published a supporting appendix that provides further detail on how these changes could work in practice, and the thinking behind them.