Prime Minister John Key says he remains keen to look at changing the mix of taxes despite public opinion being against increasing GST.A UMR Research poll of 750 people found 56 percent were opposed to raising GST to 15 percent if income taxes were lowered
Prime Minister John Key says he remains keen to look at changing the mix of taxes despite public opinion being against increasing GST.
A UMR Research poll of 750 people found 56 percent were opposed to raising GST to 15 percent if income taxes were lowered at the same time -- 41 percent strongly opposed an increase and 15 percent "somewhat" opposed it.
Only 13 percent strongly supported an increase while 20 percent somewhat supported it. Eleven percent were unsure or did not know.
A ShapeNZ online survey, commissioned by the New Zealand Business Council for Sustainable Development, found 62 percent opposed raising GST while 22 percent supported it -- 14 percent were neutral and 3 percent did not know. The opposition rose to 90 percent if GST were raised to 17.5 percent with just 4 percent in favour.
Of respondents 59 percent were not confident they would be adequately compensated through benefit rises and tax cuts if GST was increased. Only 12 percent were confident they would be adequately compensated while 29 percent were not sure.
Asked if they would be generally better or worse off as a result of a package which aligns top personal, company and trust tax rates at 33 percent or lower, increases GST to pay for this, introduces a new land tax and removes special depreciation allowances and tax avoidance opportunities, 47 percent said they would be worse off. Only 9 percent thought they would be better off, while 22 percent said no better or worse and 22 percent not sure.
Mr Key raised the possibility of GST increases in his opening statement to Parliament last week, but ruled out a land tax.
Mr Key said today polls depended on how questions were asked.
"Our aim is to at least be neutral and maybe slightly reduce the overall burden of tax on New Zealanders," he told TV3's Sunrise programme.
"We are keen to explore changing the mix."
The UMR Research telephone poll was conducted between February 4 and 9 and had a margin of error of 3.6 percent.
The ShapeNZ survey was based on views of 2281 respondents and asked a range of questions following the Tax Working Group's recommendations for tax reform.
Other findings included:
* 56 percent supporting aligning top tax rates for personal incomes, companies and trusts (11 percent against).
* 41 percent supporting reducing company tax rates from 30 percent to 27 percent (26 percent against).
* 69 percent in favour of reducing lower marginal tax rates from 12.5 percent to 10 percent and 21 percent to 19 percent (8 percent against).
* 67 percent supporting removing depreciation allowances on buildings that do not depreciate (7 percent opposed, though when later questioned on applying this to industrial and commercial buildings support fell to 37 percent while 38 percent said they didn't know)
* 46 percent in favour of removing tax depreciation allowances on rental homes (17 percent against)
* 48 percent supported discontinuing the use of Loss Attributing Qualifying Companies (LAQCs) to split incomes to quality for Working for Families payments (16 percent said they should continue and 36 percent did not know).
* 48 percent supporting ending income splitting: stopping the self employed distributing income to family members, through companies and trusts, to lower their household's overall tax compared with other households with the same overall income from wages and salaries (22 percent wanted splitting to continue, 30 percent were unsure)
* 28 percent were both for and against the idea of broadening the tax base by introducing a comprehensive capital gains tax, 26 percent were neutral and 17 percent did not know.
* 56 percent said lowering top personal tax rates and a more broadly based tax system would improve New Zealand's attractiveness for people and investors.
* 59 percent opposed an annual tax on all land of 0.5 percent (17 percent supported, 22 percent were neutral, 10 percent did not know).
* 65 percent thought the current tax system was unfair (11 percent said it was fair) and 79 percent wanted reform.
The majority of respondents said tax would influence their vote next general election.
