Dear Neville,

Thanks for your question. It is my understanding that there have already been five enquiries into the feasibility of introducing a Capital Gains Tax. Four of these enquiries said one would not be viable and the other said, yes do it, but it would have to be cover-all. In the opinion of the Conservative Party any current proposals that have been suggested have too many loop-holes and unless these could be tightened up more satisfactorily (which would be extremely difficult), no, we would have no intent of introducing such a tax.

Thanks again for the question and apologies for lateness – it seems the site didn’t save my previous answer,

Yours Sincerely,

Michael Cooke

Hi Neville

The Green Party wants a tax system that supports communities and the environment, encouraging sustainable behaviour while providing sufficient revenue for the effective operation of Government.

We would reduce the proportion of tax raised by taxing good things such as work and enterprise and introduce taxes on bad things such as waste, pollution and speculation.

Specifically we will:
- Introduce a tax-free threshold of $10,000.
- Adjust marginal tax rates and thresholds to: 0% for $0-$10,000, 19% for $10,001 to $42,500, 33% for $42,501 to $80,000, and 39% from $80,001;
- Support the introduction of a comprehensive capital gains tax (excluding the family home) on inflation-adjusted capital gains at the time of realisation. Any capital gains tax must apply to assets in New Zealand that are purchased and sold by corporations or people living overseas as well as assets sold or purchased by residents. We  support treating taxable real capital gains as income for tax rate purposes and investigate mechanisms to allow the income from capital gains to be spread over several years for New Zealand residents.

I hope this answers your question

David Moorhouse