Greens to campaign on smaller wealth tax alongside inheritance tax and new top tax rate

Sunday, 21 June 2026

The Green Party will campaign on a stripped-back wealth tax on assets over $10 million alongside a bevy of other tax changes worth a cumulative $5.9 billion a year.

The 2.5% annual wealth tax on assets over $10m, excluding the family home, is remarkably stripped back compared with the tax the party campaigned on at the Budget in 2025, delivering less than half the revenue. That wealth tax looked to net in assets worth over $2m.

The new wealth tax is accompanied by a range of other tax changes, including:

• A new 0% income tax threshold for the first $10,000 paired with a new 45% rate for those earning over $160,000, a tax cut for 96% of income earners

• An increased corporate tax rate to 33% for the “0.7% of largest businesses”

• A bank levy modelled on Australia’s of 0.06% on the liabilities of the four largest banks

• A 33% inheritance and gift tax on assets and gifts received over $1m, with family homes and family farms exempt

• Reversing the Government’s re-introduction of deductions for interest on residential property investment and changes to the bright-line test

• A 5% withholding tax on overseas profits aimed at big tech companies

The party says these changes will raise $5.94b by 2030/31.

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The tax was briefly available online on Sunday morning ahead of an official announcement.

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said in an embargoed statement that the changes evened the playing field between wealthy asset owners who paid little tax and working people who paid income taxes.

“Current tax settings allow multimillionaires to pay only $9 in tax out of every $100 they make, while a teacher pays $22 in tax out of every $100 they earn. This grossly unfair, and it’s robbing us all of the investment needed in our communities, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure,” Swarbrick said.

Swarbrick is referring to IRD research commissioned under the last Government which found the 311 richest Kiwis paid an “effective” tax rate of 8.9% on their full “economic income” - which included capital gains on existing assets as well as pure income.

She also took aim at large overseas firms not paying enough tax in New Zealand.

“Right now, Facebook, Google, Amazon and other multinational corporations are being allowed to make billions out of New Zealanders and pay next to nothing in tax for it, while small, local businesses are chased by the IRD into liquidation. That’s not right, and the Green Party will fix it.”

The Green Party are exceedingly unlikely to be able to implement its tax policy in full.

Its only coalition partner option, Labour, is campaigning on a far more limited capital gains tax on property, excluding the family home. Labour leader Chris Hipkins has attempted to rule out further tax changes.

“I have made it very clear that our tax policy is as far as we go,” Hipkins said in 2025.

National Party campaign chairperson Simeon Brown lashed the leaked tax in a speech at the National Party conference on Sunday morning.

“A wealth tax, a death tax, an inheritance tax, a tax on renters, and the big winner, Chris Hipkins. He's finally got his plan to meet the cost of his $18 billion hidden bill,” Brown said.

National has been attempting to badge Labour with an “$18b hidden bill” but its calculations include a range of policies that Labour has not actually committed to.