New Zealand's top one percent of earners pay more income tax than the entire bottom half of the country. That's the central claim in a new handbook from the Taxpayers' Union, released this week as the 2026 election campaign heats up.
The group says its report, Tax Inequality: Who really pays their fair share?, is a direct rebuttal to political parties pushing for wealth taxes, capital gains taxes, and higher income tax rates on the grounds that wealthy New Zealanders aren't contributing enough.
The numbers in the report are stark. The top 20 percent of income earners pay more than 60 percent of all personal income tax collected. The top 10 percent pay 45 percent — more than the bottom 80 percent combined. And just 46,939 taxpayers pay more income tax than 2.35 million people combined.
The same pattern holds for GST. The top 20 percent of earners account for 35 percent of all GST collected; the bottom fifth contribute just 10 percent.
Taxpayers' Union spokesperson Tory Relf didn't mince words about who she thinks is misrepresenting the situation.
"Politicians like Chlöe Swarbrick push a myth that successful New Zealanders are not paying their fair share. The evidence tells the opposite story," Relf said.
"The truth is that wealth taxes, capital gains taxes, inheritance taxes, and higher income tax rates are harder to justify if politicians were truthful about how the tax system works right now."
She acknowledged the debate around whether high earners should pay even more, but drew a line at how that debate is being framed.
"People can debate whether the rich should pay even more, but they cannot honestly pretend they are not already paying the most."
On GST specifically: "The top 20 percent account for more than a third of the total GST take, compared with just 10 percent from the bottom fifth of households."
The report lands as Labour, the Greens, and Te Pāti Māori have all put tax increases at the centre of their election platforms. The Greens are proposing a wealth tax, a 45 percent top income tax rate, a higher company tax rate, and an inheritance tax. Labour backs a capital gains tax on residential investment and commercial property. Te Pāti Māori has also advocated significant increases.
All three parties have grounded those proposals in the argument that wealthy New Zealanders don't pay their fair share — exactly the premise the Taxpayers' Union is pushing back on.
Relf framed New Zealand's current tax settings as a competitive strength worth protecting. "The relative efficiency of New Zealand's tax system is one of our greatest economic draw-cards. Politicians should think very carefully before piling even more tax on work, saving, investment, and enterprise chasing a problem the evidence shows does not exist."