Commenting on the IRD’s reinterpretation of Labour’s 2021 amendment to the bright-line test, Taxpayers’ Union Campaigns Manger, Callum Purves, said:

“When John Key’s Government introduced the bright-line test in 2015, this was the start of a slippery slope. Although the test originally only applied to investment properties sold within two years of being purchased, the National Party opened the back door for a capital gains tax.

“As many warned at the time, the IRD’s reinterpretation of Labour’s 2021 amendment to the test now means that working Kiwi families can be taxed on the value of their family home. Even if you only own one house, and even if your partner or kids are still living at home, if you spend a few months away the IRD is now bending logic to call you a property speculator to wring as much tax out of you as possible.

“The National Party’s commitment to wind the bright-line test back to 2015 doesn’t go far enough, and the test needs to be scrapped entirely. The IRD has shown it will bend the rules to tax families any way it can, and if National give an inch they will take a mile.”

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