New Zealand government mulls changes to corporate tax settings
New Zealand’s company tax rate is currently 28 per cent
NEW Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the government is considering changes to tax settings in this year’s Budget, including the corporate tax rate.
Asked on Tuesday (Feb 4) if the government is going to make changes to the company tax rate, Luxon told Newstalk ZB radio: “We are open to looking at all our tax settings that encourages growth,” adding this would be for the May Budget.
“I’m not going to talk about what those measures may be,” he said. “We are open to looking at taxation measures, and there’s a range of them that would actually incentivise and encourage growth.”
Last night, Finance Minister Nicola Willis told the same radio station that New Zealand is not as competitive as it used to be, “which is to say that our corporate tax level is reasonably high when you compare it to the rest of the developed world”.
The government is assessing what it could do to make sure that tax settings in New Zealand are supportive of businesses wanting to invest and grow, “realising that on the other side of that we have to pay for it”, Willis said.
Asked if she was thinking about changing the corporate tax rate, Willis said: “There’s many different ways we can approach the tax system. One thing is the corporate tax rate, but there are all sorts of tax rules that sit underneath that.”
A spokesperson for Willis said the minister had nothing further to add to her comments.
New Zealand’s company tax rate is currently 28 per cent. The Budget is due to be delivered on May 22. BLOOMBERG
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