Tax Policy Needs To Be Attractive Locally Too

Tax Policy Needs To Be Attractive To Local As Well As Overseas Firms - Carlaw

Business NZ Chief Executive Simon Carlaw says it's encouraging that the Government is interested in a favourable regime for new foreign investment, with the Finance Minister's decision to call for more work to be done on the McLeod panel's proposal to tax new investment in New Zealand by overseas companies at 18 cents.

"Our small population base means we must attract investment from elsewhere to grow our living standards. Clearly, we need a range of initiatives to gain that investment. By the same token, work also needs to be done to fix the tax issues for New Zealand firms investing in other countries and to reduce the overall company tax burden.

"The decision calls attention to the need to make it worthwhile for local companies to continue to invest here. The same dynamic that forces overseas companies to choose between competing countries for their investment dollar is at work for New Zealand companies also.

"Our tax policy should be just as attractive for local firms as for overseas ones."

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