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Inflation-indexed tax on savings should work in theory: English

Wednesday 25th of August 2010

"The Australian review put quite a lot of work in that, and there's no doubt the group will pick up on that," English told a briefing in Wellington. In theory it should be easy to implement, but "in practise it's pretty difficult," he said.

The Henry Review in Australia supported a move to a 40% discount on the tax of income from bank deposits, bonds, rental properties, and capital gains and for certain interest expenses to encourage savings other than superannuation or for housing.

Though the government's response will be "positive about anything that will improve national savings," any response has to be fiscally neutral, English said.

English has asked the Kerry McDonald-led Savings Working Group to provide advice on how to improve national savings, with a specific focus on looking at the case for a dual-tax system, where labour is treated differently from savings and investment, though he does not want it to only look at retirement savings.

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