Whoever wins the coming election should look to Sweden for leadership on the economic response to COVID-19, says the New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union.

Union spokesman Louis Houlbrooke says, “While Sweden’s forecast drop in GDP isn’t as severe as New Zealand’s, the country’s leadership has swung into action, phasing in a combination of permanent and temporary income tax cuts, with the goal of incentivising people to move up from part-time to full-time work.”

“Australia and the UK are also responding to COVID-19 with tax relief. Australia has shifted income tax brackets, while the UK has temporarily reduced the burden of VAT, their equivalent of GST.”

“Tax relief would put the recovery back into the hands of New Zealanders, allowing us to spend more of our own money in our own communities on the things that we value. This is more efficient than politically-determined stimulus spending, and it would put a rocket under economic growth, making debt more manageable in the long term.”

The Taxpayers’ Union is campaigning for tax relief and has created a scorecard evaluating the Parliamentary parties at www.taxrelief.nz.

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