Tax take from wealthy fell when top tax rate went up Treasury

Fri, 03 Aug 2012

By Pattrick Smellie Aug. 3 (BusinessDesk) - Treasury research has found the proportion of all tax paid by the highest earners fell after the 2001 tax changes that took the top personal income tax rate to 39 percent from 33 percent. Far from its intended purpose of increasing the contribution by wealthy people to the cost of running the government, the 2001 tax increase spurred the highest income earners to find ways of avoiding tax, the "Elasticity of Taxable Income in New Zealand" paper found. Published on the Treasury website, the researc...

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