Tax, what is taxed and what isn't

New Zealand taxes work and shopping hard, and wealth barely at all. That is a choice, and it is the choice most other developed countries made differently.

This is the short version. The long read, the system, the evidence on each instrument, every party's 2026 policy, and the site's own argument, is at /tax.

What it is

Three taxes do nearly all the work. Of the $116.6 billion Inland Revenue collected in 2024/25: individuals' income tax paid 52%, GST 25%, and company tax 17% — Inland Revenue annual report 2024/25.

Income (per year)	Rate on that slice
$0, $15,600	10.5%
$15,601, $53,500	17.5%
$53,501, $78,100	30%
$78,101, $180,000	33%
over $180,000	39%

— IRD, thresholds from 31 July 2024: Treasury, Tax at a Glance 2024. These were the first threshold moves since 2010.

The rates are marginal, the 39% rate applies only to the slice above $180,000, never the whole income. On top:

GST, 15% on almost everything you buy, up from 12.5% in October 2010 — IRD, GST rate increase 2010.
Company tax, 28% flat — IRD, 2010 rates changes.
Trust income, 39% on undistributed trustee income from April 2024 (33% under $10,000) — IRD special report, April 2024.
Savings vehicles, KiwiSaver and most managed funds tax at your PIR, capped at 28% — IRD, PIE income.
At source, tax is taken before you see it: PAYE on wages, RWT on interest and dividends, FBT on the company car — IRD, fringe benefit tax.

What isn't taxed

The shorter list is what New Zealand does not tax, and this is where the country is genuinely unusual:

Capital gains, no comprehensive capital gains tax. "Unlike most other developed countries, New Zealand does not generally tax income in the form of capital gains" — Tax Working Group final report, February 2019. The one exception is the bright-line test: residential land sold within two years of buying is taxed as income (the family home excluded) — IRD, bright-line IR1229 (current).
Land, no national land tax. New Zealand had one from 1891 to 1992; it was abolished with the estate duty the same year — Land Tax Abolition Act 1990.
Inheritance, no estate duty since 1992, no gift duty since 2011, no stamp duty since 1999 — abolition statutes on legislation.govt.nz.
Wealth, no net wealth tax and no social-security payroll tax; ACC levies sit on payslips instead.

What the wealthiest actually pay

In 2023 Inland Revenue published the study the argument had always lacked. It followed 311 of the country's wealthiest families (median net worth above $50m) across six years. On taxable income they paid about 30%, like other high earners. But measured on economic income, everything their wealth grew by, including the untaxed gains, the median effective rate was 8.9% (9.4% including GST on the comparable basis). Treasury's matched estimate for a middle-wealth New Zealander on the same measure: 20.2% — IRD High Wealth Individuals Research Project, April 2023; Treasury AN 23/03. The gap exists because most of those families' economic income arrives as untaxed increases in the value of businesses, property and portfolios, income the system doesn't count.

The two taxes that keep being proposed

A capital gains tax would tax the profit when an asset is sold. For: capital income is undertaxed and concentrated at the top, so a CGT is the fairness fix most comparable countries run. Against: compliance costs, valuation fights, and "lock-in", people hold assets longer to defer the tax. The 2019 Tax Working Group's majority recommended a broad CGT excluding the family home; the government did not adopt it — Tax Working Group, February 2019.
A land value tax would charge an annual levy on the unimproved value of land, buildings ignored. Economists like it because land can't hide or shrink in response; the TWG's own paper called broad land taxes "highly efficient, simple to administer, and difficult to avoid". The trade-offs: it hits the asset-rich and cash-poor (farms, retirees), and exempting the family home removes most of the efficiency — TWG secretariat paper on land taxes, June 2018. Your rates bill is the closest thing in force, see the housing page for how Christchurch's version splits land from buildings.

Who decides

Parliament writes the rates and the base in tax legislation; IRD administers it and publishes binding rulings on how it applies; Treasury advises ministers on what changing it would do. Tax law is ordinary law, a bare majority changes any of it, which is why tax promises anchor every election.

Where the arguments are

Labour, introduced the 39% top rate in 2021; ruled out a capital gains tax under Ardern; 2023 revenue line was removing GST from fruit and vegetables (repealed).
National, moved the income thresholds for the first time in 14 years (July 2024) and repealed the interest-deduction change for rental property; opposes a CGT and wealth tax.
ACT, wants fewer brackets (two rates) and a lower company rate; opposes wealth and capital gains taxes.
Green, an income guarantee funded by a 2.5% wealth tax over $2m and a 45% top rate over $180,000.
NZ First, tax relief through thresholds and tariffs; no CGT.

In Christchurch

Every rates bill in this city is the tax question in miniature: Christchurch taxes the capital value, land plus buildings, while a minority of councils tax land alone. The choice changes who pays, and it's the live local version of the land-tax argument, the local government page has the numbers, and the housing page has what it does to land prices.

Where to read the primary source

Tax at a Glance 2024: Treasury; the whole system on a few pages
High Wealth Individuals Research Project: IRD, April 2023; the 8.9% study
Tax Working Group final report: February 2019; the CGT case in full
Where the $116.6bn came from: IRD annual report 2024/25
The bright-line test: IRD guide IR1229

Glossary

Marginal rate: The rate on the next dollar, not the whole income, 39% applies only above $180,000.
GST: Goods and Services Tax, 15% inside almost every price you pay.
PAYE: Pay-as-you-earn, income tax the employer deducts before the wage reaches you.
Capital gain: The profit when an asset is sold for more than it cost, untaxed in NZ except within the bright-line window.
Bright-line test: The rule that taxes residential land sold within two years of buying, the shadow of a CGT, not a CGT.
Effective tax rate: Tax paid as a share of income, on economic income (incl. untaxed gains) or on taxable income; the difference is the whole story of the 2023 study.
Land value tax: An annual levy on unimproved land value, NZ ran one for a century until 1992; councils' rating valuation is its distant cousin.
Abatement: How fast a benefit shrinks as income rises, the tax nobody calls a tax; see welfare.

The Canterbury of it

One invoice, two councils. Christchurch City Council collects Environment Canterbury's regional rate on the same rates bill, ECan sets the rate, the city council does the invoicing, so ratepayers get one bill instead of two — ECan, understanding your rates bill; CCC, rates invoices.

The levy inside the insurance premium is Canterbury's own tax story. EQC cover is funded by a levy folded into home insurance premiums, collected by private insurers on the commission's behalf. From 1 February 2012 it tripled, from 5c to 15c per $100 of cover with a $207 annual cap, to refill a Natural Disaster Fund the quakes had emptied — Beehive, EQC levies rise, October 2011. The earthquakes are, in that sense, still on every insured house's bill.

And the rebuild wrote its own tax law. Insurance proceeds above a building's adjusted tax value counted as taxable income, depreciation recovered, so Parliament passed quake-specific relief in 2011 and 2012: timing rules, a cap on recovery income for repairable buildings, and rollover provisions for owners who replaced destroyed buildings inside greater Christchurch. The last of it expired only with the 2024 income year — IRD, Canterbury earthquake-related measures, 2012 Act; Taxation (Annual Rates, Returns Filing, and Remedial Matters) Act 2012.

Last reviewed 2 October 2026, sources: IRD (brackets, bright-line, HWI study, annual report), Treasury (Tax at a Glance, AN 23/03), Tax Working Group 2019. Corrections: /corrections.

Questions, answered briefly

What are New Zealand's income tax rates?

The brackets run 10.5% up to $15,600, 17.5% to $53,500, 30% to $78,100, 33% to $180,000 and 39% above that, thresholds set from 31 July 2024, the first moves since 2010. The rates are marginal: the 39% applies only to the slice above $180,000, never the whole income.

Does New Zealand have a capital gains tax?

No comprehensive one, unlike most other developed countries, in the Tax Working Group's words. The one exception is the bright-line test: residential land sold within two years of buying is taxed as income, with the family home excluded.

Is there inheritance tax in New Zealand?

No estate duty since 1992, no gift duty since 2011 and no stamp duty since 1999, and no net wealth tax or social-security payroll tax either. The short list of what the country does not tax is where New Zealand is genuinely unusual.

How much tax do the wealthiest New Zealanders pay?

Inland Revenue's 2023 study followed 311 of the wealthiest families, median net worth above $50m, across six years: they paid about 30% on taxable income, like other high earners, but the median effective rate on economic income, including untaxed gains, was 8.9% (9.4% including GST). Treasury's matched estimate for a middle-wealth New Zealander was 20.2%.