Nicola Willis hints at income tax cuts if National re-elected, but there's a catch

National’s finance spokeswoman Nicola Willis has hinted that the National Party would campaign on another round of income tax cuts – although New Zealanders will have to wait for them.

Speaking on a panel at BusinessNZ’s election conference in Wellington, Willis was asked about bracket creep, the phenomenon by which a person’s income tax burden increases thanks to inflation pushing more of their income into higher tax brackets.

Willis said National had a “track record” on bracket creep, having been the only party to re-set tax thresholds in 14 years. She said National would try to pull the same trick again.

“If elected again, our position is if we can keep to our Budget Responsibility Rules. [It] is essential that we return the books to balance and get the debt curve ending down.

“Then priority should always be always to adjusting tax settings so that working people on average wages aren’t being slapped with bigger and larger effective taxes every year.”

She said National would have more to say after Treasury opens the books at the Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update on September 29.

National’s Budget Responsibility Rules have prioritised returning to surplus by its preferred metric by 2028/29.

Willis said she would have “more to say” on this policy after Treasury’s pre-election update.

Act leader David Seymour said the Government’s first priority should be “getting on top of the debt”.

He warned that moving brackets eroded the tax base and said that the higher tax brackets were a problem.

Willis also hinted that a change to the R&D tax credit would be announced at the Budget.