Iain MacLeanThe New Zealand Herald's Deputy Political Editor, Thomas Coughlan, has done a good analysis of some of the data in the IRD report this week on the 300 wealthiest people in New Zealand and the amount of tax they pay.
Anyone who's read Max Rashbrook's book 'Too Much Money' will be familiar with this data. The IRD report showed that the mean wealth of the people in this group increased from $205m in 2015 to $275m in 2021 - an increase of $70m each.
As expected, National and Act, along with the rich and their proxies, and the aspirational middle classes have diverted the discussion into possible capital gains taxes on the houses owned by the middle class, and what their income tax rates ought to be.
I think most people don't understand how wealth works. For a start, many people think the very rich are rich because they work hard, but much of their wealth is inherited. Also, rich people get richer by already being very rich; that's how we get the $70m increase. No one can earn that much by working harder - it's virtually all growth in capital values - property, investments, shares and stocks, etc. No real effort is required.
And they are incredibly wealthy:
- the bottom 50% of households owned 2% of the country's wealth in 2021
- the top 5% owned 45.5%
- the top 1% owned 23.4%.
Those are some serious inequities.
So, here we are, arguing about who pays tax and how much they pay, rather than a wider debate on wealth, who has it, how they get and keep it, why this is seen as acceptable.
How the rich get rich: Seven things you missed from the IRD’s wealth report
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/how-the-rich-get-rich-seven-things-you-missed-from-the-irds-wealth-report/27RRNVLIDRGP7HQX2WXLH3VFEI/ #wealth #WealthTax #tax #WealthInequity
Anyone who's read Max Rashbrook's book 'Too Much Money' will be familiar with this data. The IRD report showed that the mean wealth of the people in this group increased from $205m in 2015 to $275m in 2021 - an increase of $70m each.
As expected, National and Act, along with the rich and their proxies, and the aspirational middle classes have diverted the discussion into possible capital gains taxes on the houses owned by the middle class, and what their income tax rates ought to be.
I think most people don't understand how wealth works. For a start, many people think the very rich are rich because they work hard, but much of their wealth is inherited. Also, rich people get richer by already being very rich; that's how we get the $70m increase. No one can earn that much by working harder - it's virtually all growth in capital values - property, investments, shares and stocks, etc. No real effort is required.
And they are incredibly wealthy:
- the bottom 50% of households owned 2% of the country's wealth in 2021
- the top 5% owned 45.5%
- the top 1% owned 23.4%.
Those are some serious inequities.
So, here we are, arguing about who pays tax and how much they pay, rather than a wider debate on wealth, who has it, how they get and keep it, why this is seen as acceptable.
How the rich get rich: Seven things you missed from the IRD’s wealth report
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/how-the-rich-get-rich-seven-things-you-missed-from-the-irds-wealth-report/27RRNVLIDRGP7HQX2WXLH3VFEI/ #wealth #WealthTax #tax #WealthInequity
Robin Capper
Kay 
Nataliastarr