Those in favour of hiking personal taxes will typically state that New Zealand’s personal tax rates are relatively low compared with other countries. Don’t fall into the trap of comparing countries’ headline income tax rates. New Zealand is a relatively high taxing country if you compare ‘effective income tax rates’...
According to recent data released by OECD (includes up to 2018 provisional data), New Zealand: Ranks below the OECD average for total taxes levied as a % of GDP, but is higher than Australia, Japan and USA. But note that New Zealand is: Fourth highest in OECD for personal tax as...
The Green Party policy is to have two new tax brackets at the high-income end, raising about $1.3b revenue pa. But that’s a drop in the ocean if a government is looking to fill a massive budget deficit and fund additional social policies. Hence the Greens propose a comprehensive...
The Green Party policy is to impose a new wealth tax as its main plank to fund a proposed revamp of the income support system. It’s an interesting proposal, but unlikely to be widely debated, let alone implemented. While many countries have some form of capital gains tax (CGT)...
On average New Zealand workers earn just below the OECD average income (in USD) and pay a high proportion of average personal income tax. However, they do get to take home a higher percentage of their gross wages compared to workers in many countries where substantive compulsory social security...
As reported by the NY Times US has suspended talks with OECD to find a consensus reform for the international taxation of the digitised economy via a letter by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to European leaders. Our last report highlighted that the US was not comfortable with OECD’s proposed...
Stuff reported that for 2019 Google NZ reported a significant increase in its reported profits and tax payable in New Zealand. Google NZ reported an operating profit of $10.6m, which represents tax payable of around $3m. Considering the overall Google sales in New Zealand captured by Google offshore appear...
In June 2019 the Government stated its preferred approach to wait for OECD to develop its multinational solution to change the taxing rules for digitised companies, “but it will seriously consider a digital services tax (“DST”) if the OECD cannot make sufficient progress this year.” It was estimated that...
The OECD Secretariat issued a short paper on 3 April analysing various tax treaty issues arising from government imposed travel and ‘lock-down’ requirements as a result of Covid-19. Here is a summary of the Covid-19 tax treaty issues:Permanent establishment (PE)• An employee may have temporarily relocated from their usual...
Ensure your New Zealand transfer pricing documentation is fit for purpose Changes made last year to New Zealand’s transfer pricing rules are now in force for many taxpayers. Below is a short checklist: When does the new legislation first apply from? For balance dates beginning on or after 1 July 2018. Balance...