WELLINGTON: A capital gains tax won’t affect housing affordability but could make the New Zealand tax system fairer, BNZ’s chief executive says. Anthony Healy told The Nation he supported the idea of a broad-based CGT but it should not be held up as a solution for high house prices.
“All the evidence points to the fact that having a capital gains tax doesn’t address housing affordability. There’s a whole bunch of issues that come into that question. And if you look at, say, Australia, for example, they have capital gains tax, and they still have housing affordability issues. It’s really about equity in the tax system.”
He said New Zealand had a skew towards taxing equities and incentives in the system that pushed people to invest in property.
