Te Pāti Māori Unveils Sweeping ‘Kiwi Tax Plan’ With 5% Stamp Duty and Wealth Tax

Te Pāti Māori has unveiled one of the most far-reaching tax packages of the 2026 election campaign, proposing a new 5 percent stamp duty on many residential property purchases, higher company tax, a redesigned wealth tax and substantial income-tax cuts for most New Zealanders.

RNZ first reported the policy announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

The party says its “Kiwi tax plan” is designed to shift more of the tax burden away from workers and towards property, wealth and companies, with co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer arguing that too many households are struggling with rising living costs.

The package contains nine major tax changes, including one policy not previously campaigned on by the party: a 5 percent stamp duty on residential property sales, with an exemption for first-home buyers purchasing homes below $1 million.

The stamp duty is likely to become one of the most politically contentious parts of the plan because New Zealand has not had a broad residential property stamp duty for decades.

5% stamp duty would materially change property transaction costs

A stamp duty is a tax charged when certain property or legal transactions take place.

Te Pāti Māori’s proposal would apply at a rate of 5 percent to residential sales, while exempting first-home buyers purchasing below the $1 million threshold.

That would add a substantial upfront cost to many purchases.

For example:

The party has not yet publicly detailed all of the operational rules that would be needed, including whether the duty would fall formally on the buyer in every case, how exemptions would work in complex transactions, and how it would interact with trusts, investors or transfers between related parties.

That matters because a 5 percent transaction tax is large enough to influence buying and selling behaviour.

It could discourage some property turnover, increase the cost of moving house and change investor calculations, even if first-home buyers below $1 million are protected.

New Zealand previously used stamp duty in various forms, but residential property was exempted from conveyance duty in 1988 and stamp duty was abolished altogether in 1999.

So this would not simply be a tweak to the current tax system. It would represent the return of a type of tax New Zealand has not broadly used for more than a generation.

Wealth tax proposal is softer than in 2023

Te Pāti Māori is also reviving its wealth-tax policy, but at lower rates than it proposed at the 2023 election.

The new structure would apply:

• 1.5 percent on net wealth above $2 million

• 2 percent on net wealth above $5 million

• 2.5 percent on net wealth above $10 million

In 2023, the party proposed rates of 2 percent, 4 percent and 8 percent at similar wealth thresholds.

That means the latest version is substantially more moderate at the top end, although it would still represent a major change to New Zealand’s tax base.

The party says the aim is to make the wealthiest households contribute more while reducing income tax for workers.

Income-tax cuts are the political centrepiece

The strongest retail message in the package is not the wealth tax or stamp duty.

It is the promise that 97 percent of New Zealanders would pay less income tax.

Te Pāti Māori says around 4.2 million people would receive, on average, an additional $4,000 a year.

The party is pitching that as immediate relief for households facing higher food, housing and power costs.

“This is a policy for everyone. Whether you are a cleaner, a nurse, a teacher, a tradie, a pensioner or raising a whānau, we want you to keep more of what you earn,” the party said.

The appeal is obvious.

But the key fiscal question is whether the revenue raised from wealth, property and company taxes would be enough to fund such a large reduction in income tax without creating a significant hole in Crown revenue.

That is where the debate will now move.

Company tax would rise back to 33%

The party is also proposing to increase the company tax rate from 28 percent to 33 percent.

That would reverse the 2010 reduction which brought the company rate down to its current level.

The measure would raise additional revenue, but it would also affect New Zealand’s competitiveness relative to countries with lower corporate tax rates.

Businesses could respond in several ways.

Some may absorb the higher tax.

Others could reduce dividends, investment or expansion.

Some multinational companies may place greater weight on where they locate future investment.

The impact would depend heavily on how much revenue the higher rate actually raises after behavioural changes are taken into account.

This is one area where the policy could have much wider consequences than the headline tax rate suggests.

Food support shifts from GST removal to tax credit

Te Pāti Māori has also changed its position on GST and food.

At the 2023 election, the party proposed removing GST from fresh food.

This time, it is proposing a targeted tax credit for people earning under $60,000.

The party says the payment would be equivalent to “eight weeks of kai”.

That may prove easier to target than a GST exemption because the benefit could be directed towards lower and middle-income households rather than being spread across all consumers.

However, the party has not yet set out publicly how the payment would be calculated or administered.

That detail will be essential before voters can judge the true value of the policy.

Tax enforcement funding would double

The party also wants to significantly increase funding to tackle tax evasion and fraud.

Its proposed enforcement fund has doubled from $500 million in 2023 to $1 billion.

This could prove to be one of the most commercially important parts of the package if additional Inland Revenue resources generate more tax than they cost.

Tax enforcement spending can produce strong returns when it successfully targets hidden income, complex avoidance structures and deliberate non-compliance.

However, the party has not yet published a detailed estimate of how much extra revenue it expects the $1 billion investment to recover.

Other taxes return from 2023

Several policies have been carried over unchanged from the last election.

These include a 33 percent land-banking tax and a 33 percent vacant-house tax.

The objective is to penalise underused property and discourage owners from holding land or housing empty for speculative gain.

The political challenge will be defining exactly what counts as land banking or a vacant home and making sure genuine cases, such as homes undergoing repair, probate properties or temporarily empty houses, are treated fairly.

What could the plan raise?

The party has framed the package as a major redistribution of the tax burden, but one of the biggest unanswered questions is revenue.

A 5 percent stamp duty could potentially raise substantial sums, especially in a high-value housing market.

But revenue would depend heavily on the number of transactions, exemptions and how buyers and sellers respond.

For example, if taxable residential transactions worth $40 billion occurred in a year, a 5 percent duty would theoretically raise $2 billion before exemptions and behavioural changes.

At $50 billion of taxable transactions, the gross figure would be $2.5 billion.

Those are illustrative calculations only, not Te Pāti Māori costings.

Actual revenue could be much lower if first-home buyers are exempt, transaction volumes fall, or other exemptions are introduced.

The same caution applies to the wealth tax.

Headline rates do not automatically translate into predictable revenue because wealthy households can restructure assets, shift ownership, change investment patterns or alter residency.

That means the quality of the eventual fiscal modelling will matter as much as the political promise.

National attacks the package as a major tax grab

National campaign chair Simeon Brown responded immediately, describing the policy as confirmation that parties on the left intended to increase taxes.

He called it “the biggest tax grab in New Zealand’s history”.

That criticism is politically effective but incomplete on its own because Te Pāti Māori is simultaneously promising significant income-tax reductions for most workers.

The real argument is therefore not simply about whether taxes go up.

It is about who pays more and who pays less.

Te Pāti Māori wants workers on lower and middle incomes to pay less income tax, while property buyers, wealthy households and companies would contribute more.

National is likely to argue that those changes would damage investment, business confidence and property mobility.

Labour could face pressure after the election

The policy also creates a potentially difficult issue for Labour.

Labour has already outlined a much narrower capital gains tax proposal and has not backed a broad wealth tax or stamp duty.

Te Pāti Māori co-leader Rawiri Waititi said Labour’s approach did not go far enough and signalled that broader tax reform would be part of any post-election discussion.

Asked about Labour leader Chris Hipkins, Waititi replied that he would “see you on the eighth”, referring to the day after the election.

That does not amount to a formal coalition bottom line, but it makes clear that tax reform could become a major negotiating issue if the election produces a Parliament where Labour requires Te Pāti Māori support.

The real contest is over the shape of the tax base

The most important feature of the Kiwi tax plan is that it attempts to change where New Zealand collects tax, not simply how much it collects.

New Zealand relies heavily on personal income tax and GST.

Te Pāti Māori wants to move more of that burden towards wealth, property transactions and corporate profits.

That is a legitimate economic debate.

But the success of such a shift depends on design.

A stamp duty can raise revenue, but it can also discourage property transactions.

A wealth tax can broaden the tax base, but it can be difficult to value and enforce.

A higher company tax can raise more from profitable firms, but it can also influence investment decisions.

Income-tax cuts can lift household disposable income, but only if the replacement revenue is durable enough to fund them.

That is the real test for Te Pāti Māori’s package.

The headline promise is simple: most workers pay less.

The policy architecture behind that promise is much more complex.

Source credit: RNZ first reported Te Pāti Māori’s Kiwi tax plan on 26 August 2026. Additional context: Te Pāti Māori policy material and historical Inland Revenue information on New Zealand stamp duty.