{"id":639531,"date":"2026-10-24T00:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639531\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T00:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T00:46:11","slug":"should-wealthier-kiwis-pay-more-tax-heres-what-voters-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/639531\/","title":{"rendered":"Should wealthier Kiwis pay more tax? Here\u2019s what voters think"},"content":{"rendered":"

A majority of New Zealanders across every income group surveyed think wealthier people should pay more tax, new Vote Compass<\/a> findings show.<\/p>\n

That includes 53% of respondents earning more than $100,000.<\/p>\n

Overall, 62% said wealthier people should pay somewhat or much more tax. While that remains above the level recorded a decade ago, it is down from 67% at the last election.<\/p>\n

The analysis draws on responses from 186,475 people who used Vote Compass between October 4 and 21.<\/p>\n

Find out where you stand with Vote Compass<\/a><\/p>\n

What did people say?<\/p>\n

Participants were asked: \u201cHow much should wealthier people pay in taxes?\u201d<\/p>\n

Around 31% said somewhat more, and another 31% said much more.<\/p>\n

A further 31% wanted the amount to stay about the same, while 5% said wealthier people should pay less. About 1% did not know.<\/p>\n

The question measures views on how much tax wealthier people should pay generally. It does not ask respondents to rate a particular wealth tax, rate or threshold.<\/p>\n

A majority across five elections<\/p>\n

Support for wealthier people paying more tax has exceeded 50% in every Vote Compass election survey in New Zealand since 2014.<\/p>\n

\"University<\/p>\n

University of Auckland political scientist Danny Osborne. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

It rose from 56% in 2014 to 57% in 2017 and 59% in 2020, before peaking at 67% in 2023.<\/p>\n

Overall support for wealthier people paying more tax:<\/p>\n

2014: 56%<\/p>\n

2017: 57%<\/p>\n

2020: 59%<\/p>\n

2023: 67%<\/p>\n

2026: 62%<\/p>\n

What shapes people\u2019s views?<\/p>\n

University of Auckland political scientist Danny Osborne said people\u2019s explanations for wealth inequality can influence the policies they support.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo if you think wealth inequality is due to lack of effort and people just not working hard enough, then that\u2019s going to lead you to have a very different policy position than somebody who believes that wealth inequality is a result of unfair tax regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The findings also show a relationship between income and support for wealthier people paying more.<\/p>\n

Support was highest among respondents in the lowest income band, at 70%, and declined across the higher bands.<\/p>\n

But it remained a majority in each group:<\/p>\n

Results by income band<\/p>\n

Percentage who think wealthier people should pay more:<\/p>\n

$20,000 or less: 70%<\/p>\n

$20,001 – $40,000: 68%<\/p>\n

$40,001 – $70,000: 66%<\/p>\n

$70,001 – $100,000: 64%<\/p>\n

More than $100,000: 53%<\/p>\n

Where party supporters stand<\/p>\n

The differences were sharper when respondents were grouped by the party they currently supported.<\/p>\n

Among Green supporters, 96% wanted wealthier people to pay more tax, compared with 88% of Labour supporters and 86% of Opportunity supporters.<\/p>\n

That fell to 45% among New Zealand First supporters, 30% among National supporters and 25% among ACT supporters.<\/p>\n

For National and ACT supporters, the most common response was that wealthier people should pay about the same amount as they do now.<\/p>\n

Among respondents who were undecided about their party vote, 64% favoured wealthier people paying more.<\/p>\n

Find out where you stand on party policies with Vote Compass<\/a><\/p>\n

Methodology<\/p>\n

Results are based on 186,475 respondents to Vote Compass between October 4 and 21, 2026. Data were weighted to align the sample characteristics with those of the New Zealand adult population on the following characteristics: sex, age, ethnicity, education, and past voting record. A margin of error does not apply to non-probability samples. The modeled error estimate for a percentage in the overall sample is \u00b10.3 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Results based on subsamples of the data should be expected to contain greater error.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A majority of New Zealanders across every income group surveyed think wealthier people should pay more tax, new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639532,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5901,219,111,43,139,69,135,270122,305111],"class_list":["post-639531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-1news-recommends","tag-economy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-vote-2026","tag-vote-compass-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}