Tax Principles Reporting Bill

Ministerial statement

“Inland Revenue’s recent High-Wealth Individuals Research Project revealed a startling disparity between the effective tax rates paid by the super-wealthy compared with other New Zealanders.”

“This bill continues the good work of shining a light on the fairness of our tax system. The public deserves to have this information, so people can use it to assess claims made by politicians about tax fairness.”

Editorial comment

In addition to the Multinational Tax Bill, the Tax Principles Reporting Bill was also released on the night of Budget 2023.

The Tax Principles Reporting Bill proposes to introduce a set of generally accepted tax principles and requires that the Commissioner reports (in the form of an interim report annually or a full report triennially) on how the tax system is operating, as measured against those principles.

The generally accepted tax principles are consistent with those that have been articulated in several tax working group reviews both in New Zealand and overseas. The taxation principles put forward in the Tax Principles Reporting Bill include:

„ Horizontal and vertical equity

„ Efficiency

„ Revenue integrity

„ Certainty and predictability

„ Flexibility and adaptability, and

„ Compliance and administration costs.

The objective of the Tax Principles Reporting Bill is to increase the public’s understanding of how the New Zealand tax system operates and to contribute to informed debate and discussion about the future of the tax system.

Contact information:

Wolters Kluwer New Zealand

Level 2, 8-12 The Promenade

Takapuna, Auckland 0622

New Zealand

Phone: 0800 500 224

Email: nz-marketing@wolterskluwer.com

Please visit www.wolterskluwer.co.nz for more information.