Tax Justice media release
13 July 2011

Broad coalition proposed to fight for more taxes on the super-rich

Tax Justice welcomes the national debate in response to speculation that Labour will campaign for a Capital Gains Tax.

“The rich, and especially the super-rich, have not been paying the tax they should,” says Vaughan Gunson, Tax Justice campaign coordinator.

“A Capital Gains Tax is one mechanism for taxing the rich that needs to be introduced,” says Gunson, “but we also need a Financial Transaction Tax, which could net billions from currently untaxed financial speculation.”

“The advantages of a Financial Transaction Tax are that it’s difficult for the super-rich to avoid, it’s low cost to implement, and it’s very progressive, because it’s only the very rich who move their money around speculating in financial markets,” says Gunson.

The Tax Justice campaign has been collecting signatures for a petition that requests Parliament to remove GST from all food and tax financial speculation instead.

The petition will be presented to the Labour MP for Mangere, Su’a William Sio, on Tuesday 16 August.

“After we’ve presented the Tax Justice petition to Parliament, we’re going to approach a range of organisations and political parties about forming a coalition that campaigns for more taxes on the rich and the phasing out of GST.”

Mr Gunson says the fight for tax justice in this country would be best served by parliamentary parties on the left working together with unions and other campaigning organisations to build the political momentum needed to radically change New Zealand’s unjust tax system.

“We know from collecting signatures on the street that people want to see the tax burden shifted off themselves and onto the super-rich,” says Gunson.

“That’s consistent with the mood we’re seeing overseas, with ordinary people in numerous countries demanding that the super-rich pay more tax,” says Gunson. “This global sentiment is likely to grow and put further pressure on politicians like John Key, who favour tax breaks for the rich.”

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