Labour boosts its books with a last-ditch digital tax

Revenue minister Barbara Edmonds (left) with Chris Hipkins and Grant Robertson earlier this year. (Image: NZME)

Thu, 07 Sep 2023

The government introduced legislation on the last day of the current parliament that risks trade retaliation by seeking to unilaterally tax multinational tech companies.The Digital Services Tax (DST) Bill was introduced on Aug 31, hours before parliament was dissolved ahead of the Oct 14 election, in a move that allows the government to count $222 million of forecast tax revenue in next Tuesday’s pre-election economic and fiscal update (PREFU).With the proposed tax coming into force on Jan 1, 2025, at the earliest, that suggests the forec...

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