IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ecolab/v18y2007i1p27-52.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Farewell to Tax Neutrality: The Implications for an Aging Population

Author

Listed:
  • Susan St. John

Abstract

In the light of the financial consequences of longevity, the potential for widening living standards as the population ages, and the perception of an increased burden by the working age population, recent policy changes in New Zealand appear far from ideal. For nearly twenty years, the retirement system has comprised just a universal state pension, called New Zealand Superannuation, and voluntary unsubsidised private saving. The decision in the late 1980s to promote tax neutrality for saving was critical to attaining a cost-effective, adequate, equitable and sustainable retirement income for all in an uncertain future. Nevertheless, a level playing field was only partially achieved and by the early 2000s, large imbalances in the economy were apparent. Strident calls to promote saving gradually undermined the accord around tax neutrality for retirement saving leading in 2007 to the re-introduction of tax incentives for certain types of saving, and other types of state intervention in private provision. This paper examines how the twenty year experiment with tax neutrality is coming to an end and the implications this has for the support of an aging population experiencing increased longevity.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan St. John, 2007. "Farewell to Tax Neutrality: The Implications for an Aging Population," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 18(1), pages 27-52, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:18:y:2007:i:1:p:27-52
    DOI: 10.1177/103530460701800103
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/103530460701800103
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/103530460701800103?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert P. Hagemann & Brian R. Jones & Robert Bruce Montador, 1987. "Tax Reform in OECD Countries: Economic Rationale and Consequences," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 40, OECD Publishing.
    2. Thomas Dalsgaard, 2001. "The Tax System in New Zealand: An Appraisal and Options for Change," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 281, OECD Publishing.
    3. Judd, Kenneth L., 1999. "Optimal taxation and spending in general competitive growth models," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(1), pages 1-26, January.
    4. Alicia H. Munnell, 1992. "Current taxation of qualified pension plans: has the time come?," New England Economic Review, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Mar, pages 12-25.
    5. Grant Scobie & John Gibson & Trinh Le, 2004. "Saving for Retirement: New Evidence for New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 04/12, New Zealand Treasury.
    6. Kwang-Yeol Yoo & Alain de Serres, 2004. "Tax Treatment of Private Pension Savings in OECD Countries and the Net Tax Cost Per Unit of Contribution to Tax-Favoured Schemes," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 406, OECD Publishing.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. World Bank, 2014. "Poland : Saving for Growth and Prosperous Aging," World Bank Publications - Reports 20441, The World Bank Group.
    2. Felicity C Barker & Robert A Buckle & Robert W St Clair, 2008. "Roles of Fiscal Policy in New Zealand," Treasury Working Paper Series 08/02, New Zealand Treasury.
    3. Starke, Peter, 2005. "Resilient or residual? From the wage earners' welfare state to market conformity in New Zealand," TranState Working Papers 22, University of Bremen, Collaborative Research Center 597: Transformations of the State.
    4. Mikhail Golosov & Aleh Tsyvinski & Iván Werning, 2007. "New Dynamic Public Finance: A User's Guide," NBER Chapters, in: NBER Macroeconomics Annual 2006, Volume 21, pages 317-388, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Ajit Singh, 1998. "Pension Reform, the Stock Market, Capital Formation and Economic Growth: A Critical Commentary on the World Bank’s Proposals," Istanbul Stock Exchange Review, Research and Business Development Department, Borsa Istanbul, vol. 2(8-7), pages 51-78.
    6. repec:zbw:rwirep:0170 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Valeria Bonis & Luca Spataro, 2018. "Optimal income taxation and migration," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(4), pages 867-882, August.
    8. Blackorby, Charles & Brett, Craig, 2004. "Capital Taxation In A Simple Finite-Horizon Olg Model," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 709, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    9. Carlos Garriga, 2019. "Optimal Fiscal Policy in Overlapping Generations Models," Public Finance Review, , vol. 47(1), pages 3-31, January.
    10. Günther Rehme, 2023. "Capital depreciation allowances, redistributive taxation, and economic growth," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 25(1), pages 168-195, February.
    11. Kočišová, J. & Horváth, D. & Brutovský, B., 2009. "The efficiency of individual optimization in the conditions of competitive growth," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 388(17), pages 3585-3592.
    12. Nikolay Arefiev, 2008. "The Inconsistency Puzzle Resolved: an Omitted Variable," EERI Research Paper Series EERI_RP_2008_15, Economics and Econometrics Research Institute (EERI), Brussels.
    13. Jiang Wei, 2019. "Optimal taxation under equilibrium unemployment and economic profits," The B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 1-21, January.
    14. Günther Rehme, 2007. "Economic Growth and (Re-)Distributive Policies in a Non-cooperative World," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 91(1), pages 1-40, May.
    15. Tim Besley, 2001. "From micro to macro: public policies and aggregate economic performance," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 22(3), pages 357-374, September.
    16. Valeria De Bonis & Luca Spataro, 2005. "Taxing Capital Income in a Perpetual Youth Economy," STUDI ECONOMICI, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2005(87).
    17. Chen, Been-Lon & Lu, Chia-Hui, 2013. "Optimal factor tax incidence in two-sector human capital-based models," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 75-94.
    18. Garcia Penalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Second-best optimal taxation of capital and labor in a developing economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1045-1074, June.
    19. DJINKPO, Medard, 2019. "A DSGE model for Fiscal Policy Analysis in The Gambia," MPRA Paper 97874, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 30 Dec 2019.
    20. Massimo Antonini, 2005. "Public Capital, Fiscal Deficit and Growth," DEGIT Conference Papers c010_055, DEGIT, Dynamics, Economic Growth, and International Trade.
    21. Auerbach, Alan J. & Hines, James Jr., 2002. "Taxation and economic efficiency," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 21, pages 1347-1421, Elsevier.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:ecolab:v:18:y:2007:i:1:p:27-52. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.