Escaping Muldoon’s Shadow tax and retirement options for 21st-century New Zealanders
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26686/pq.v21i4.10333Keywords:
tax distortions, social security taxes, compulsory savings schemes, inequalityAbstract
New Zealand has the most unusual tax arrangements for providing public retirement incomes and taxing private retirement incomes in the OECD. The key differences are: (1) public retirement incomes are funded from general taxation, not social security taxes or contributions to a compulsory savings scheme; and (2) private savings are taxed on an income rather than expenditure basis.
These arrangements distort investment decisions, reduce income levels, raise long-run tax rates, and artificially inflate property prices.
Change is feasible, even if New Zealand Superannuation is not changed, and may be the key to reversing New Zealand’s long-term
economic underperformance.
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