With the election weeks away, a new poll gives us a glimpse into how voters feel about one of the major topics this campaign season: tax.
No new taxes for working people. No new taxes full stop. Taxes for capital gains. Tax the rich. Tax inheritance. Tax landowners.
The latest Ipsos Issues Monitor survey dived deeper into the tax debate, showing about two-thirds of Kiwis would support a wealth tax.
Inflation/the cost of living remains the most pressing area for Kiwis and was listed by 63% of respondents when asked to name the three most important issues facing the country.
Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths told The Front Page that Labour is seen as the most capable party on all five top concerns: cost of living, health, economy, housing and unemployment.
“Like every poll, you take this with quite a significant grain of salt. With polls, you’re looking at trends rather than each individual poll.
“But this one does show that of the top five issues, as the previous one did, Labour is seen as the most competent party to deal with all of those top issues. In fact, of the top 15 issues, I think they’re leading in about 10 of them. That’s a win for Labour, no doubt.
“They will be very happy with that, but it is by no means a commanding lead. Labour is slipping there. The biggest issue, cost of living: 31% of voters there think that Labour is the most competent at handling that issue. It’s 21% for National, so there is a 10-point gap.
“On managing unemployment, there’s a dive there as well. Forty-two per cent of people thought they were the best party to manage unemployment three months ago. That’s gone down significantly to 34%,” he said.
We’re frequently hearing about tax, but compared to other issues it’s generally not rated highly in New Zealanders’ lists of concerns. Only 8% of people nominated taxation itself as one of the country’s biggest issues.
“But we are already seeing signs that taxation is rising as an issue. For example, in July’s poll, it was at 6%. It’s now at 8%, which suggests a rise. And I mean, National is balancing their whole campaign on the idea of tax,” Griffiths said.
“The poll also asked voters from every party what they thought about particular taxes.
“Now, for Labour voters, get this, 76% of them say that they want a wealth tax. By the way, that’s the one that Labour is not campaigning on. That’s the one they’ve ruled out. When it comes to a capital gains tax, only 56% of them want one of those. That’s the one that Labour is campaigning on. So barely a majority of Labour’s own voters even want a capital gains tax.
“For the Nats, this is also very interesting: 47% of their voters want a wealth tax. Only 25% want a capital gains tax. Now, you can sit here and look back and think, why is that? Why is a wealth tax the one that’s seen, I guess, by political parties as more scary than a capital gains tax? Why is that one more popular?
“I think the obvious answer is that most voters probably don’t ever see themselves being whacked with a wealth tax. Of course, the main one that’s being proposed is wealth above $10 million, which is not everyone on the street.
“Capital gains tax is a bit different. A lot of people can see themselves buying an investment property, for example... But it is very interesting to see that there seems to be more interest from the voting population in a wealth tax than a capital gains tax,” he said.
The tax menu
National: No new taxes.
Labour: A 28%, targeted capital gains tax (CGT) when a commercial or residential property (excluding the family home or farm) is sold.
Act: No new taxes.
Greens: Wealth tax, 2.5% annual tax on net assets above $10m. Inheritance/gifts tax, 33% above $1m. Top income tax rate of 45% on income over $160,000, alongside a $10,000 tax-free threshold.
Opportunity: An annual land value tax of 1.75% on urban land and 0.5% on rural land to help pay for a universal basic income, or Citizen’s Income, of about $19,400 a year to most adults.
NZ First: Small business company tax cut from 28% to 20% for companies with turnover under $30m.
Te Pāti Māori: No tax on the first $30,000 earned, a wealth tax on net wealth over $2m, starting at 1.5% that rises to 2% for wealth between $5m and $10m, and 2.5% for wealth over $10m.
Listen to the full episode to hear more about:
- Capital gains tax
- Wealth tax
- Land value tax
- A tax cut for SMEs.
The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald , available to listen to every weekday from 5pm. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.
You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
