# Tax paradise???



## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

Came across an interesting opinion column on tax in NZ. Most people only ask about about Income Tax and Goods and Services Tax(GST) rates when investigating coming to NZ, but it should be noted NZ doesn't have taxes that eat into your wealth, such as capital gains tax, estate duty, stamp duty, gift duty(from Oct 1 2011)

_This being the first tax column of the year, let us start off on a positive note, writes Aneesha Varghese in this week's Taxing Times.

On my travels overseas during the Christmas break, I realised that New Zealand is a tax paradise.

We have no capital gains tax, no sales tax (not the same as GST; some countries have both GST and sales tax), no estate duty, no gift duty from October 1 this year, no stamp duty, no withholding tax on property sales, no payroll tax (this is levied on employers in some Australian states and is based on the total wages paid out), no separate state tax, no surcharges on income tax. The list goes on._
Shock news: we live in a tax paradise | Stuff.co.nz


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## Yvonne.72 (Jan 9, 2011)

Great for Australians and other foreigners who want to buy and trade property in New Zealand, not so good for the average hard working Kiwi who is bearing a disproportionately large share of the tax burden (I should find out how many of the four million or so people are in employment but I don't have time to look it up right now) whilst those with the money are exporting their wealth offshore.


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

Yvonne.72 said:


> Great for Australians and other foreigners who want to buy and trade property in New Zealand, not so good for the average hard working Kiwi who is bearing a disproportionately large share of the tax burden (I should find out how many of the four million or so people are in employment but I don't have time to look it up right now) whilst those with the money are exporting their wealth offshore.


6.4% umemploymet
New Zealand Unemployment Rate
•New Zealand has the 11th lowest unemployment rate of the 33 OECD countries and is below the average OECD rate of 8.5%
Employment and Unemployment - Labour Market Reports - NZ Department of Labour

Interesting to see that unemployment for the areas in the South Island are around the 5% or lower.


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## NZCowboy (May 11, 2009)

Yvonne.72 said:


> Great for Australians and other foreigners who want to buy and trade property in New Zealand, not so good for the average hard working Kiwi who is bearing a disproportionately large share of the tax burden (I should find out how many of the four million or so people are in employment but I don't have time to look it up right now) whilst those with the money are exporting their wealth offshore.


If you buy and trade property you are taxed on your profit as thats your income, as you are a trader, no different to a farmer who buys and sell sheep or cattle for profit or cale sales that buy and sell cars for profit. Similarly a day trader on the share market pays tax on profit from increased value of shares, but a long term investor doesn't.
But the average hard working kiwi doesn't pay tax when they sell there house as they are not traders but if you bought and sold 4 or 5 houses over a couple of years you may have to pay tax on your profit, as you would be considered a trader.


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