New Zealand

New Zealand's Rankings
CategoryRankScore
Overall Rank381.34
Corporate Taxes2849.75
Individual Taxes683.07
Consumption Taxes690.42
Property Taxes287.42
Crossborder Taxes2273.66

New Zealand ranks 3rd overall on the 2021 International Tax Competitiveness Index, the same as in 2020.


Strengths

  • New Zealand allows corporate losses to be carried forward indefinitely and has introduced a temporary one-year carryback provision, allowing businesses to be taxed on their average profitability.
  • The VAT of 15 percent applies to nearly the entire potential consumption tax base.
  • New Zealand property taxes apply just to the value of land rather than real estate or other improvements to the land.

Weaknesses

  • New Zealand has an above-average corporate tax rate of 28 percent (the OECD average is 22.9 percent) and poor cost recovery provisions for business investments.
  • New Zealand has a narrow tax treaty network, with 40 countries.
  • The cost of inventory can be accounted for using First-In-First-Out method or the average cost method (Last-In-First-Out is not permitted).

Learn more about the tax system in New Zealand

Get email updates about global tax policy from the Tax Foundation.

Subscribe today!