Opportunity’s Tax Reset: the largest tax cut for low-income working Kiwis in history – TOP

Opportunity has released its full Tax Reset policy — a package of three reforms designed to ease the cost-of-living crisis, bring house prices down and future-proof retirement.

“New Zealand runs on a tax system built in 1986. We’re hurting from cost-of-living, housing and fiscal crises, because we’re taxing and spending for a different era,” says leader Qiulae Wong.

“Opportunity is a party that refuses to kick tax down the road any longer. We believe it’s time to build a tax system that invests in people, instead of property.”

The Tax Reset policy rests on three new pillars:

• A Citizen’s Income ensures that every Kiwi can afford the basics to live well and contribute. Almost all adults will receive $370 per week ($19,400 a year) – replacing most benefit classes with top-ups available for retirees, Kiwis with a disability and others.
• A Land Value Tax will bring house prices down and redirect investment away from property speculation and into productive businesses. The 1.75% annual tax applies to land only and pays for the Citizen’s Income (with an additional $4b left-over). For ‘land rich, cash poor’ Kiwis like farmers and retirees – lower rates (like a 0.5% tax on rural land), exemptions and deferrals may apply.
• Kiwisaver 2.0 will future-proof retirement. This is a compulsory scheme with employee and employer contributions rising over time, building a trillion-dollar capital pool to fund national development and ensuring that every Kiwi retires with dignity.

“The Citizen’s Income and Land Value Tax mechanisms  work together to underpin the system” says Wong. “The result is a streamlined benefit system that can cope with crises, the end of the ‘poverty-trap’ for those on a benefit and a shift away from house price growth as our main economic driver.”

“The Tax Reset will ensure real security for every Kiwi in an increasingly uncertain world. It’s bold and transformative – because it needs to be.” 

The party projects that the Tax Reset would lift 50,000 Kiwi families out of poverty and raise incomes for 70% of New Zealanders (with another 20% seeing no substantial change).

“This election, the status quo political parties are offering policy tweaks for our cost-of-living, housing or economic growth challenges. Not Opportunity. In the Tax Reset, we are proposing long overdue reform of the fundamentals of New Zealand’s economy and society. We are treating the root causes of these overlapping issues – not the symptoms.”

“New Zealanders have a choice this election. We can pass on a broken tax system to the next generation and continue to ignore the fiscal crises ahead. Or we can reset tax” says Wong.

People interested in the Tax Reset proposal can try the party’s tax calculator to estimate their new tax bill, or pick a character from the ‘Kiwis of Tomorrow: Life when we invest in people over property’ comic series.