Budget 2017: More incentives for middle-class taxpayers needed

Stewart Group authorised financial adviser Nick Stewart.

With the Government in a position of surplus it would be good to see some incentives introduced in this year's Budget, beyond the social investment being targeted in the announcements made to date, says local financial adviser Nick Stewart.

Based in Hastings, Stewart Group deals with the financial affairs of people across the country, and Mr Stewart said there were areas the Government could focus on to make life easier for average Kiwis and help them prepare for the future.

One area was KiwiSaver and the issue of member tax credits that were halved following legislation passed in 2011.

This saw the Government's contribution that had previously matched savers' contributions dollar for dollar up to $1040 per annum, drop to a maximum annual contribution of $521 per annum.

"They halved it in tough times, telling us we as a country had to cut our costs.

"Now that they are telling us the sun is shining, it would be great to see that incentive re-introduced."

This was particularly relevant in that in 2016, for the first time in five years, New Zealand household savings turned negative, he said.

"Each household went from being a net saver to being in deficit in the 2016 financial year.

"Even though the economy is good, people's individual financial health declined.

"The fact is we have an ageing population - we know that in the future there will be a substantially bigger burden placed on working taxpayers - we need to be encouraging people to save.

"The longer we leave it the more pain people will feel."

When looking at the pre-budget announcements to date, he said the focus on social investment was effectively beefing up society's safety net, yet there had been no major changes to lessen business tax or the burden on middle class taxpayers since 2011.

"Social investment is fine but if times are so good now, we need to re-invest back into the people and businesses who pay the bulk of the tax in this country."

He said it was only in the first term of the current National Government that it signalled any major changes to tax thresholds and rates, and it would be timely to re-visit this.

As well as social investment, the Government had promised to inject more money into the country's infrastructure, but despite much talk over the past 10 years around infrastructure schemes, as well as in the years before under Labour, little had been achieved, Mr Stewart said.

"We were supposed to have public private partnerships but nothing has been done.

"Every day we are bringing in more migrants, the population is growing but the infrastructure is not growing to cater for this."

He noted that the lead time for such major investment was not measured in months or quarters, it often needed decades to put into place.

"The more we kick the ball down the road, we will continue to have infrastructure issues.

"We all know a lot of infrastructure needs to be built and we need to start seriously addressing it now."