Hipkins rules out wealth and capital gains tax – ‘End of story’

Labour will not propose a wealth tax or a capital gains tax at the election, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said overnight on Wednesday.

“I’m confirming today that under a Government I lead there will be no wealth or capital gains tax after the election. End of story.”

He said “now is simply not the time for a big shake-up of our tax system”.

It comes as Labour returned its lowest result since 2019 in the latest Talbot Mills corporate poll, which showed its support had slumped five points to 31% of voters, placing it five points below the National Party, at 36%.

“Any poll result like that is disappointing, but it is real, and I take it seriously,” Hipkins said while in Lithuania.

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Hipkins said in a statement on Wednesday “while work was already under way on a potential wealth tax and CGT as part of a tax switch in the Budget, I ultimately made the call not to proceed with it”.

“We simply didn’t have a mandate to implement those tax changes.”

The Green Party has proposed a wealth tax would charge 2.5% on net assets above $2 million held by an individual .

The Greens would also introduce a 1.5% tax on any wealth held in a trust. Shaw said the trust tax would disincentivise people from moving their assets into trusts, to get out of paying the 2.5% wealth tax.