Copeland: Tax change could see $16.50 a week extra pay

Inflation-adjusting New Zealand income tax bands could mean as much as $16.50 a week more for some families and give a $400 million boost to the economy, United Future's Gordon Copeland says.

"And it is time the Government got on and did it," Mr Copeland, the party's finance spokesman, said.

Taking the matter up in Parliament last night during the third reading of the Appropriation Estimates Bill, he renewed his call for adjusting the bands for the 19.5 percent rate from $38,000 to $42,000, and the 33 percent rate from $60,000 to $65,000.

The increase in take-home pay would vary from $1.16 to $16.50 a week, he said.

"Even if the Government is not moved to help the hard-hit Kiwi taxpayer, then perhaps it would do it because of the financial stimulus it would provide at a time when the Government has just told us that growth is on the way down, and forecast at just 2.2 percent this year.

The Government is relying solely on monetary policy and "I do not believe that on its own it will get the job done", he said in Parliament last night.

"We need both monetary and fiscal policy to kick in and work in tandem to get the economy moving again."

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