WELLINGTON: New Zealand’s Finance Minister, Steven Joyce, is seeking to increase the country’s threshold for 30 percent income tax to above NZD48,000 (USD33,761).
Hinting the measure may not be introduced in May’s Budget, Joyce said that the increase would certainly be introduced if his National party is re-elected this September.
In an interview with TV3, he said: “The median wage has been growing in New Zealand… the median wage is now NZD48,000, [and] the average wage is now NZD55,000, so somebody who hits the median wage is now on 30 cents in the dollar, at that point – if they’ve been paying a student loan off that’s another 12, so that’s 42 cents in a dollar [in tax], and we rightly worry about whether young people can save for a house.”
