Quantifying bracket creep in New Zealand’s personal income tax, 2011–2024

New Zealand’s main personal income tax thresholds were unchanged from October 2010 until July 2024, while consumer prices rose substantially. This note uses annual IRD taxable-income tabulations, calibrated to actual PIT collections, to estimate the revenue effect of this non-indexation. Relative to a CPI-indexed counterfactual, frozen thresholds generated an estimated nominal $5.8 billion in additional PIT revenue in FY2024 and an undiscounted nominal total of $23.5 billion over FY2011–FY2024. As a share of income, the burden peaks for middle earners and declines above the third indexed threshold.

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Publication Details

Journal
New Zealand Economic Papers
Published
2026-10-06
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/00779954.2026.2737626
Primary Topic
Economic and Fiscal Studies
Type
article
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article

Quantifying bracket creep in New Zealand’s personal income tax, 2011–2024

Norman Gemmell, Peer Ebbesen Skov
New Zealand Economic Papers
Economic and Fiscal Studies
article

Quantifying bracket creep in New Zealand’s personal income tax, 2011–2024

Norman Gemmell, Peer Ebbesen Skov
article en

Abstract

New Zealand’s main personal income tax thresholds were unchanged from October 2010 until July 2024, while consumer prices rose substantially. This note uses annual IRD taxable-income tabulations, calibrated to actual PIT collections, to estimate the revenue effect of this non-indexation. Relative to a CPI-indexed counterfactual, frozen thresholds generated an estimated nominal $5.8 billion in additional PIT revenue in FY2024 and an undiscounted nominal total of $23.5 billion over FY2011–FY2024. As a share of income, the burden peaks for middle earners and declines above the third indexed threshold.

New Zealand Economic Papers
Auckland University of Technology (NZ), Victoria University of Wellington (NZ), Rockwool Foundation (DK)
Openalex Percentile: Top 7%
Economic and Fiscal Studies
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Quantifying bracket creep in New Zealand’s personal income tax, 2011–2024 — Norman Gemmell, Peer Ebbesen Skov · New Zealand Economic Papers (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS