People expect to be worse off, says survey

Press, 8 March 1988, Page 3

People expect to be worse off, says survey

; More; people believe (they (will be worse off (than expect to gain from (the( Government’s recent changes to personal and company income tax.

A (‘New Zealand. Her-ald”—-National Research Bureau; poll has found that 35( per cent of those surveyed expect to lose from] (the revised tax package produced by the Minister of Finance, Mr Douglas, last month.

Only; 22 per cent expect to (be (better off, and 30 per bent of respondents did not know or would not say (how the taxes will affect them.

A further 13 per (cent believe the changes will leave them no better or worse.

On February 10, Mr Douglas announced a twostep personal income tax scale to apply from October 1. The first $30,875 annual earnings will be taxed at 24 per cent and each dollar earned above that will attract a 33 per cent rate. ( ' Company tax will be reduced from 48 per cent to 28 per cent from April 1. I :

His earlier proposals’ for compensating lowerincome earners with dependants were shelved to

await the report of the Royal Commission on Social Policy. The poll, taken between February 23 and March 1, has found women much less optimistic than inen about the impact of the changes on them. Only 15 per cent of women surveyed thought they) would be better off, compared with 2’B per cent of men.

But women recorded a higher level of uncertainty about the package. Generally, pessimism increased with age. Those in the age brackets between 25 and 44 were slightly inclined towards

the view that they will, be better off, while those aged 45 and over recorded more expectations for the worse.

The poll was conducted among 1100 men and 11(00 women selected by random probability methods in the 20 main population centres.

They were interviewed face to face and asked: “Do you feel that the recently announced changes in personal and company income tax will leave you better or worse off financially?” ( Their answers, with sex, age and area breakdowns were as follows: (

'i ll - - ' 4! ■> (Those polled were also asked whether they felt the tax changes would be good or bad j for the economy. ' I I |That brought a higher degree of optimism than the question of the personal impact of the changes.. . I ; -|A total of 30 per cent thought the new scales would be good for the economy but a greater! number, 35 per cent, were uncertain. I la£ with the earlier question, men were generally more optimistic |than women and age giroups regarded the economic value of the changes much as they viewed its personal impact. • • I I . I Their response to the question: “Do you feel those tax changes will be good or bad for the! economy of New Zealand as a whole?”| was:

All results are subject to a maximum statistical sampling error of plus or minus 2 ’rffr I | i I Tomorrow: Public feeling on changes to,' taxation of life insurance and superannuation. i ! Copyright 1988 — “New Zealand Herald.”

Sex Age group Area Tot. M ' F 16-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55+ Metro Prov % % % % % t % %J| %' % % ;r off 22 . 28 15 14 34 1 34 22;! 10 22 21 Neithe r 13 15 12 15 11 10 ■ 13 15 12 15 Wpn e. off 35 35 36 30 31 ' 33 46 ! 40 37 33 Don t know 30 22 37 •41 24 23 19 1 35 29 31

[ Sex Age group Area 1 1 Tot. MF 16-24 25-34 35-44 45>4 55+ Metro Prov -11 odd % % % % % % % % % % G 30 38 21 24 37 36 3] 24 30 30 B ad | 29 29 30 28 26 27 . 31 32 31 27 N eithe 6 6 6 5 6 7 6 6 5 7 D on’i know 35 27 43 43 31 30 29 38 34 36