Rich not getting richer

writes:

New from the IRD shows that the share of taxable income going to the richest New Zealanders has not changed under . However, that share is still very large, indicating significant income imbalances.

The IRD data shows that the richest tenth of taxpayers got one-third of all taxable income in both 2008 and 2014. Within that, the richest 1%, about 34,000 people, got over 8% of taxable income.

In contrast, the poorest tenth got just 0.4%.

The income shares are broadly the same in 2014 as they were in 2008. This would suggest that pre- inequality has not increased under National.

It's interesting data, but also limited as it is about individuals, not households. Someone in the bottom 10% of income earners may be married to someone in the top 1%. Also those retired or studying will of course have little income compared to those in FT work.

But what does the data show:

  • Taxable income of the top 1% has gone from 9.0% of all taxable income in 2008 to 8.4% in 2014
  • Share of income tax paid of the top 1% has gone from 13.1% in 2008 to 13.7% in 2014

So the top 1% are earning slightly less income (share) under National than they were under Labour, and they are paying a greater percentage of total income tax.

This goes against what you hear from Labour and Green MPs.

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