Pitched as a tax cut for the "96%" funded by the "super-rich", the Greens' 2026 plan would scrap income tax on the first dollars earned and tax large fortunes, big companies and inheritances to pay for it.

The Policy: Green Party Tax and Wealth Policy — June 2026 →

What it does:

• Creates a $10,000 tax-free threshold and rebuilds the income brackets, while adding a new 45% top rate on income over $160,000 (replacing the current 39% rate that starts at $180,000). The party says 96% of New Zealanders would pay less tax.
• Introduces a 2.5% annual wealth tax on net assets above $10 million (family home exempt), which the party says 99.7% of people would not pay. Treasury and Inland Revenue costed this part at about $3.8 billion a year (party estimate).
• Adds a 33% Capital Acquisitions (inheritance) tax on gifts and inheritances over $1 million, exempting the family home, family farms and Māori land; the party estimates it affects roughly 1,100 people a year.
• Lifts the company tax rate from 28% to 33% for firms with turnover above $30 million (the party says about 0.7% of companies), plus a 0.06% levy on the big four banks' liabilities and a 5% withholding tax on multinational tech profits, per the party's policy document.
• The party put net new revenue at about $5.15 billion in 2027/28, after correcting an $800m error over four years that co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick called a "typo".

The result: This is an opposition policy, not law — it would only take effect if the Greens won power and could legislate it, so for now it is a pledge. Co-leaders Chlöe Swarbrick and Marama Davidson frame it as answering a "cost of greed crisis", and the package is markedly narrower than the Greens' 2023 plan, lifting the wealth-tax threshold from $2m to $10m. Infometrics principal economist Brad Olsen said the costings are "valid and reasonable" but cautioned the overlapping changes are "difficult to fully assess" and behavioural effects were not fully modelled. Westpac chief economist Kelly Eckhold noted a capital gains style tax has become "relatively mainstream", while Deloitte tax partner Robyn Walker said wealth taxes "will not be popular" and are hard to design and administer. Opponents are blunt: National campaign chair Simeon Brown called it "economic lunacy" that would "drive away talent and capital", ACT leader David Seymour argued it rewards "tall poppy syndrome", and Labour leader Chris Hipkins said his party would not support a wealth or inheritance tax. (Tax is contested; positions here are attributed, not endorsed.)

The impacts to watch:

• Whether wealth can be valued and collected: 2023 Treasury/IRD advice on a wealth tax was abandoned as "not a simple tax", citing valuation of illiquid assets and capital-flight risk.
• Coalition maths: with Labour ruling out wealth and inheritance taxes, the policy's path depends on post-election negotiation, not the Greens alone.
• Behavioural response: how many high-net-worth individuals restructure assets or leave, which would erode the projected revenue Olsen flagged as uncertain.
• Big-tech and bank levies: enforceability of a 5% withholding tax on multinationals' offshore profits against existing double-tax treaties.