Tax Cuts

From October 1 2008 all New Zealand earners have had a bit of relief to the pocket in the form of tax cuts. These have come about as the current Labour government tries to drum up support for the upcoming elections next month.

Here are the old and new NZ tax rates:

OLD RATES

Income	Tax Rate
$0 - $9500	15%
$9500 - $38000	21%
$38000 - $60000	33%
$60000 +	39%

NEW RATES

Income	Tax Rate
$0 - $20000	12.5%
$20000 - $42500	21%
$42500 - $80000	33%
$80000 +	39%

So as you can see its been a reasonable rejig of things. The bottom line for me on my current salary is that I'll get an extra $16.50 per week, which sounds pretty meagre, but does add up over time I guess. What's going to make a bigger difference to my pay packet is a pay rise that is in the pipeline and will hopefully (fingers crossed) be signed off in the next week or so. But I'll talk more about that later.