General policy statement
This Bill gives effect to many of the changes announced as part of the Budget 2017 Family Incomes Package. As a package, the changes are intended to provide better rewards for hard work, improve incomes for those with young children or high housing costs, and start to simplify the tax and transfer system.
The amendments in the Bill increase the 2 lowest personal income tax thresholds, repeal the independent earner tax credit, and increase the younger child payment rates of the family tax credit. The other measures announced as part of the package, including changes to the Accommodation Supplement and Accommodation Benefit, are dealt with separately to this Bill through regulation.
Objectives
Providing better rewards for hard work
Personal income tax rates were last changed in 2010. Since that time, median income has increased from $40,000 to $48,000. Incomes across the distribution have also increased.
As incomes increase, the marginal tax rates individuals face also increase. This weakens work incentives by reducing the rewards of extra work. High marginal tax rates (MTRs) can also encourage people to structure their affairs to reduce their tax obligations.
Where the median income earner in 2010 faced a MTR of 17.5%, they now face 30%. New Zealand’s labour force participation rate is relatively high. However, if income tax thresholds are not adjusted periodically, work incentives could be diminished.
Over time, high MTRs may cause problems for New Zealand in maintaining its tax base, enhancing its productivity and maintaining or improving its living standards.
Improving incomes for those with young children or high housing costs
The tax and transfer system is redistributive and is designed to provide assistance to those in financial hardship. Average incomes at each decile have grown since 2010. Despite growing incomes, some families are seeing rising costs place pressure on their living standards. Rising housing costs in particular have increased the proportion of incomes spent on housing, particularly for low-income families. As a result, some low-income families have seen declines in residual (after-housing-costs) income.
For example, recipients of the Accommodation Supplement who receive a main benefit have seen their residual incomes fall in real terms on average by 8% since 2006, and recipients of the Accommodation Supplement who don’t receive a main benefit or NZ Superannuation have seen their residual incomes fall in real terms on average by 3%. For all recipients of the Accommodation Supplement the average decline in real terms was 2%. Around 40% (approximately 120,000) of recipients spend more than half of their income on housing costs.
Simplifying the tax and transfer system
The tax and transfer system is complex. The rules for determining eligibility and claiming entitlements can be difficult to navigate. One of the objectives for the package is to start simplifying the system to more clearly link rewards to effort. This will also improve the ease of administration.
Specific changes
The following is a brief summary of the policy measures contained in this Bill.
Personal tax changes
This Bill increases the lowest 2 personal income tax thresholds from 1 April 2018. This will encourage labour supply and improve the rewards from work for low and middle income earners in particular. Table 1 shows the current and new thresholds.
Table 1: Current and new personal income tax thresholds
Current Bracket ($) | New Bracket ($) | Rate |
---|
1 – 14,000 | 1 – 22,000 | 10.5% |
14,001 – 48,000 | 22,001 – 52,000 | 17.5% |
48,001 – 70,000 | 52,001 – 70,000 | 30% |
70,001+ | 70,001+ | 33% |
Increases in tax thresholds generally improve work incentives. In particular, increases to the $14,000 threshold are likely to improve work incentives for those receiving a benefit as these individuals typically enter work at lower incomes. Increases to the $48,000 threshold are likely to improve individuals’ incentives to work longer hours in aggregate.
To ensure the effects of the personal tax changes flow through the tax system appropriately, consequential amendments to the Inland Revenue Acts are required. The Bill amends fringe benefit tax attribution thresholds, employer superannuation contribution tax thresholds, portfolio investment entity thresholds, pay-as-you-earn codes, non-filing thresholds, extra pays, and secondary tax.
The uplift factor for individual provisional taxpayers who use the uplift method is also temporarily reduced. This ensures those taxpayers benefit from the threshold changes at the same time as wage and salary earners, rather than at the end of the tax year.
Independent earner tax credit
This Bill repeals the independent earner tax credit from 1 April 2018. The credit has become poorly targeted and is administratively complex. It is estimated that only around 80% of those eligible for the tax credit actually claim it. Of those, around 60% claim it after the end of the tax year.
Recipients are fully compensated for the loss of the credit by the lower tax threshold change, and will no longer have to file at year end or select a different tax code to claim it.
The labour supply impact of removing the independent earner tax credit, on its own, is marginally negative. However, re-prioritising the savings will more effectively improve labour supply.
Family tax credit
This Bill increases the family tax credit payment rates for younger children to align with those for older children from 1 April 2018. This significantly increases payments to families with young children. Table 2 shows the current and new rates.
Table 2: Family tax credit rates
Annual Rate | Current | 1April 2018 | Annual increase | Weekly increase |
---|
Eldest child, 16 – 18 | $5,303 | $5,303 | - | - |
Eldest child, 0 – 15 | $4,822 | $481 | $9.25 |
Subsequent child, 16 – 18 | $4,745 | $4,745 | - | - |
Subsequent child, 13 – 15 | $3,822 | $923 | $17.75 |
Subsequent child, 0 – 12 | $3,351 | $1,394 | $26.80 |
Increasing the lower age rates for the family tax credit will benefit eligible families with children aged 0 to 15. Families with children aged 16 to 18 and in the abatement zone will face a very small loss due to the increased abatement rate and decrease of the abatement threshold, but the losses are mostly offset by the changes to tax thresholds. A Transitional Assistance Fund is also established as part of the wider package that will compensate those families that lose more than $3 per week.
The family income threshold above which the tax credit is abated is reduced from $36,500 to $35,000. The abatement rate is also increased from 22.5 cents in the dollar to 25 cents. These are the settings the Government agreed in 2011 would be progressively changed between now and 2025 according to current forecasts. The changes to abatement settings further target assistance to lower-income families.