"We already tax quite a lot of capital gains under existing settings, so what is actually being proposed now by Labour is just an extension of what is already there," Pippos said.
"I think most New Zealanders are comfortable with a capital gains tax so long as it follows, potentially, tax cuts elsewhere."
Labour has said it would introduce a capital gains tax, excluding the family home, aimed at property speculators, while a key part of the National Party's election platform are tax cuts set to come into effect in 2017.
Finance Minister Bill English said the debate surrounding a capital gains tax over the past four weeks had highlighted the need for various exemptions.
"It's a tax that a number of people quite like the idea of but no one wants to pay it," he said.
English told the breakfast a National-led Government would spend up to $10 billion more over the next four years, compared with $18 billion planned by opposition parties.
Commenting on the generally favourable outcome in the Mood of the Boardroom survey, English said the Government had worked hard to gain voters' confidence.
"New Zealanders have sorted out how to adjust to a changed world - both in their homes and in their work places," he said. "And they now feel like they know how to handle it.
"A bit more bad news about Europe or Australia is something that they can take into account, but they have a fundamental belief that, if anything goes wrong, they will know what to do," English said.
Labour finance spokesman David Parker said he was encouraged by the level of support in the business community for a capital gains tax, which he said would aid the flow of capital to more productive parts of the economy.
He said it was neither a tax grab nor an inheritance tax.
"A lot of people understand that with the lowest home ownership rates in 60 years, we need to start doing things differently," Parker said. "We have had lower general price inflation in New Zealand for a few years now and we have had a huge increase in house prices at the same time.
"As is stands, people are incentivised to invest in rental property, which puts them in competition with first-home buyers."
Parker said New Zealand just had the best terms of trade in 41 years yet it had not run a current account surplus. "How do you fix that? Through capital accumulation and capital allocation."
Parker said capital allocation in New Zealand had been distorted by the tax system "and it ought not to be", adding capital needed to shift from speculative forms of investment to more productive ones.
Kim Campbell, chief executive of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern), said the high number of farms in New Zealand would make the introduction of a capital gains tax difficult, but he said the underlying themes about capital allocation would be around for some time.
