Tax barely gets a mention in the Wellbeing Budget

Wellington, 30 May 2019 – “The personal taxation goose continues to be plucked pretty hard when looking at the Budget fine print,” says Deloitte Chief Executive Thomas Pippos.

Page 139 of the 144-page Budget booklet gives a snippet of how skewed the tax base actually is, with the disproportionate share coming from personal taxation. From FY18 to FY23, revenue from personal taxation is projected to grow from $36 billion to $48 billion (35 percent) representing 43 percent of all total sovereign revenue.

“This is tricky when surpluses have largely been spent for the next few years and capital gains tax is off the table. Progressive tax sentiment permeates the last few pages as well,” says Mr Pippos.

“The reality is that the revenue levers are quite limited putting individual taxpayers squarely in the cross hairs if the books need to be balanced,” he adds.

“But that will be for another day, as Budget 2019 will also go down as one where taxation barely got a mention. And when it did it was largely as a bibliography,” concludes Mr Pippos.

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