Vote Compass: Most New Zealanders support higher taxes for the wealthy

Voters also had their say on how much big business should be paying in taxes.

Most Kiwis support the idea of wealthier people paying more in taxes.

That’s one of the latest findings from TVNZ’s Vote Compass tool, which has now been used by more than 170,000 New Zealanders.

Voters were asked, “How much should wealthier people pay in taxes?”

Fifty-nine per cent said more or somewhat more, while 34 per cent said the tax rate should stay the same.

Just seven per cent of New Zealanders think the wealthy should be paying less.

Vote Compass results show 59 per cent of participants believe the wealthy should pay more taxes

Victoria University of Wellington’s professor Jack Vowles says people seem to be growing more concerned about wealth distribution and inequality.

“We’ve seen this increasing in New Zealand before the 2014 election, if not before, and with Covid-19 that puts more pressure on income wealth and inequality.”

Vote Compass also asked, “How much tax should corporations pay?”

Sixty-two per cent of people think they should pay more, while 29 percent think it should stay the same.

Sixty two per cent of participants think corporations should pay more tax in New Zealand

Only six per cent of people think they should pay less.

While increased taxes appear to resonate with voters, Vowles warns that those policies can be a tricky sell from those with political clout.

“You’ll get opposition to it from those who will be disadvantaged by those policies.”

To take part in Vote Compass, a survey tool which shows users how their views match up with party policies, go to tvnz.co.nz/votecompass

Developed by a team of social and statistical scientists from Vox Pop Labs, Vote Compass is a civic engagement application offered in New Zealand exclusively by TVNZ.

The findings are based on 65,648 respondents who participated in Vote Compass from August 30, 2020 to September 10, 2020.

Unlike online opinion polls, respondents to Vote Compass are not pre-selected. Similar to opinion polls, however, the data are a non-random sample from the population and have been weighted in order to approximate a representative sample. Vote Compass data have been weighted by gender, age, education, language, region and past vote to ensure the sample’s composition reflects that of the actual population of New Zealand according to census data and other population estimates.

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