2 weeks Ago By Thomas Coughlan
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer raised some fiscally attuned eyebrows in the House on Tuesday when she said the Government could raise an astonishing $200 billion from a Capital Gains Tax in just six years, 10 times more revenue than Labour’s ill-fated wealth tax. It is an astronomical sum. On an annual basis, it is about half the size of New Zealand’s entire economy, measured by GDP.
It would be more than a third of every dollar spent by the Government over the six years to 2023 (including the cost of the Covid response), which came to $570b, measured by core Crown spending. Core Crown Revenue is expected to be $136b in the current year. The figure is vastly more than previous CGT policies.
The 2018 Tax Working Group tax plan forecast raising just $11.8b in its first six years. Even th e Greens’ 2023 wealth tax policy from 2023 would only raise about $12.
8b a year, or $76.8b over six years. Packer dropped the figure in Question Time asking Prime Minister Christopher Luxon how many houses the Government could build over six years with $200b she believed could be raised by the tax.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee did not allow the question, because it did not relate to the primary question..
