Professor Robert MacCulloch: Labour Conference 2024 - the Party will Support Running on Capital / Asset Taxes in Election 2026.

Traders may be able to make a bit of money out of this Blog. How come? Since Labour obviously have a chance of winning Election 2026 & knowing they'll run on a platform of capital-asset taxes has far-reaching economic consequences. Obviously one cannot be 100% certain, though its all but a done deal. Its only partly due to former Revenue Minister Parker's lobbying efforts to that effect, in cahoots with Michael Wood. The main reason is that Labour's new Finance Spokesperson, Barbara Edmonds, is a supporter, though she's disingenuously denying it.

All she's presently doing is designing the new taxes in a way they can be best "sold" to the public. Edmonds is a tax lawyer - the worst qualification for a person wanting to be Finance Minister. In her maiden speech to Parliament in 2020 she said, "It would be remiss of me not to touch on the topic of tax. Contrary to popular belief & probably to the dismay of our small tax community in NZ, I do not love tax, but I do believe in a fair, efficient & cohesive tax system that has a broad base with low rates". That means she supports capital taxes and will run on a platform of combining them with cuts to income taxes (though, being Labour, still increasing the total tax take). She's also saying how her tax-lawyer mates love taxes - the more complicated the better - since that's how her profession make their money, from tax advisory fees. Its why she also loves taxes, though wont admit it.

Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.