IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/vuw/vuwcpf/19331.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The Distributional Effects of Consumption Taxes in New Zealand

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas, Alastair

Abstract

This paper investigates the distributional effects of the GST in New Zealand, and the case for the introduction of reduced rates to address distributional concerns. The analysis is based on a consumption tax micro-simulation model constructed using expenditure micro-data from the Household Economic Survey for 2012/13. The distributional effects of excise taxes on tobacco, alcohol and petrol are also considered. The paper finds that the lifetime distributional impact of the GST is either proportional or at worst slightly regressive. Excise taxes are also found to be roughly proportional or slightly regressive, though they are of far smaller magnitude than GST burdens. Simulation results show that the introduction of a European-style multi-rate GST system would have a progressive impact on overall GST burdens, but that such a reform would benefit richer households significantly more than poorer households in dollar terms. Given it is the overall progressivity of the tax system that matters, New Zealand’s current approach of providing targeted support to poorer households via the Working for Families tax credit package can be seen as a far more cost effective way of supporting poorer households than the introduction of reduced GST rates for specific expenditure items.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas, Alastair, 2015. "The Distributional Effects of Consumption Taxes in New Zealand," Working Paper Series 19331, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    • Handle: RePEc:vuw:vuwcpf:19331
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ir.wgtn.ac.nz/handle/123456789/19331
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Erik Hurst & Geng Li & Benjamin Pugsley, 2014. "Are Household Surveys Like Tax Forms? Evidence from Income Underreporting of the Self-Employed," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 96(1), pages 19-33, March.
    2. John Creedy, 1998. "Are Consumption Taxes Regressive?," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 31(2), pages 107-116, June.
    3. O'Donoghue, Cathal & Mantovani, Daniela & Baldini, Massimo, 2004. "Modelling the redistributive impact of indirect taxes in Europe: an application of EUROMOD," EUROMOD Working Papers EM7/01, EUROMOD at the Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    4. Christopher Ball & John Creedy & Michael Ryan, 2016. "Food expenditure and GST in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 115-128, August.
    5. Florens Flues & Alastair Thomas, 2015. "The distributional effects of energy taxes," OECD Taxation Working Papers 23, OECD Publishing.
    6. Eimear Leahy & Seán Lyons & Richard S. J. Tol, 2011. "The Distributional Effects of Value Added Tax in Ireland," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 42(2), pages 213-235.
    7. John Creedy & Cath Sleeman, 2006. "The Distributional Effects of Indirect Taxes," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12558.
    8. Nicolas Ruiz & Alain Trannoy, 2008. "Le caractère régressif des taxes indirectes : les enseignements d'un modèle de microsimulation," Économie et Statistique, Programme National Persée, vol. 413(1), pages 21-46.
    9. Neil Warren, 2008. "A Review of Studies on the Distributional Impact of Consumption Taxes in OECD Countries," OECD Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers 64, 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. Thomas, Alastair, 2015. "The Distributional Effects of Consumption Taxes in New Zealand," Working Paper Series 4668, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    2. Alastair Thomas, 2022. "Reassessing the regressivity of the VAT," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 23-38, March.
    3. Robert Hagemann, 2018. "Tax Policies for Inclusive Growth: Prescription versus Practice," OECD Economic Policy Papers 24, OECD Publishing.
    4. IonuÈ›-Constantin Cuceu, 2016. "The Distributional Effects of Value Added Tax," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 450-454, February.
    5. Corrado Benassi & Emanuela Randon, 2021. "The distribution of the tax burden and the income distribution: theory and empirical evidence," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(3), pages 1087-1108, October.
    6. Cuceu Ionuţ-Constantin & Văidean Viorela-Ligia, 2018. "Redistributing Income through VAT," Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, Ovidius University of Constantza, Faculty of Economic Sciences, vol. 0(2), pages 588-592, December.
    7. Arsić, Milojko & Altiparmakov, Nikola, 2013. "Equity aspects of VAT in emerging European countries: A case study of Serbia," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 171-186.
    8. Luca Gandullia & Lucia Leporatti, 2019. "Distributional effects of gambling taxes: empirical evidence from Italy," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 17(4), pages 565-590, December.
    9. John Creedy, 2009. "Personal Income Taxation: From Theory to Policy," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 42(4), pages 496-506, December.
    10. Francesco Figari & Alari Paulus, 2015. "The Distributional Effects of Taxes and Transfers Under Alternative Income Concepts," Public Finance Review, , vol. 43(3), pages 347-372, May.
    11. David Madden & Michael Savage, 2020. "Which households matter most? Capturing equity considerations in tax reform via generalised social marginal welfare weights," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(1), pages 153-193, February.
    12. Tovar Reaños, Miguel A. & Wölfing, Nikolas M., 2018. "Household energy prices and inequality: Evidence from German microdata based on the EASI demand system," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 84-97.
    13. Thomas Douenne, 2018. "The vertical and horizontal distributive effects of energy taxes," Working Papers 2018.10, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    14. Thomas, Alastair, 2019. "Who Would Win from a Multi-rate GST in New Zealand: Evidence from a QUAIDS Model," Working Paper Series 8127, Victoria University of Wellington, Chair in Public Finance.
    15. Susan Namirembe Kavuma & Christine Byaruhanga & Nicholas Musoke & Patrick Loke & Michael Noble & Gemma Wright, 2020. "An analysis of the distributional impact of excise duty in Uganda using a tax-benefit microsimulation model," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2020-70, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    16. Mukherjee, Sacchidananda, 2023. "Distributional Impact of Indian GST," Working Papers 23/403, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    17. Francesca Gastaldi & Paolo Liberati & Elena Pisano & Simone Tedeschi, 2017. "Regressivity-Reducing VAT Reforms," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 10(1), pages 39-72.
    18. Lars-H. R. Siemers, 2014. "A General Microsimulation Model for the EU VAT with a specific Application to Germany," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 7(2), pages 40-93.
    19. repec:ijm:journl:v109:y:2017:i:1:p:39-72 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Christopher Ball & John Creedy & Michael Ryan, 2016. "Food expenditure and GST in New Zealand," New Zealand Economic Papers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(2), pages 115-128, August.
    21. Claudia Kettner-Marx & Daniela Kletzan-Slamanig, 2018. "Carbon Taxes from an Economic Perspective," WIFO Working Papers 554, WIFO.

    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:vuw:vuwcpf:19331. 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: Library Technology Services (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/fcvuwnz.html .

    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.