All the details on Budget 2010
All the details on Budget 2010
In Budget 2010 on 20 May, the government announced a range of money changes due to take effect from 1 October this year. These include:
- Lower personal tax rates for all taxpayers
- Increase in GST from 12.5% to 15%
- Increase in NZ Super rates and benefits to compensate for the increase in GST
- Top PIE investment tax rate and company tax rate reduces from 30% to 28%
Changes were also announced to the rules around building depreciation, to take effect from next April.
Need more info?
Here's where you can find out more detail about the Budget announcements:
Tax change calculator
Visit taxguide.govt.nz to see how the tax changes from 1 October could affect you - including the effect of tax cuts and the GST increase.
Tax scenarios
Also on taxguide.govt.nz, read examples of how the changes affect different types of New Zealanders.
NZ Super rates
The Ministry of Social Development website has a table comparing current NZ Super rates with the new rates applying from 1 October 2010.
Tax announcements
Inland Revenue's Tax Policy website has detailed information on all of the announcements including company tax, building depreciation and LAQC changes.
Also check out the Retirement Commissioner's response to the Budget 2010. Her key message is to work out what the budget means for you before making any decisions.
User comments Re: Married GSF
Both are correct. Sorted shows NZ Super rates as weekly and annual amounts, which are helpful for budgeting. However if you receive NZ Super, it is actually paid into your account fortnightly. Therefore the net amount an individual person in a married or defacto couple could recieve is $489.42 per fortnight, which equates to $244.71 per week (the "couple both qualify (each)" amount in our table). The total amount a couple who both qualify could receive would be twice those amounts - $978.84 a fortnight or $489.42 a week (the "Couple both qualify (total)" amount in our table). For the full current rates see this page on the Work and Income website http://bit.ly/9kSktn
Posted at 08:52 am on June 29, 2010 Married GSF
Your table states:
Weekly Annual
Single, living alone $318.12 $16,542
Single, sharing $293.65 $15,269
Couple, both qualify (total) $489.42 $25,449
Couple, both qualify (each) $244.71 $12,724
Yet the letter we got from the PM today states the married or defacto rate is $489.42 per FORTNIGHT.
Which is CORRECT
Posted at 08:50 pm on June 28, 2010 
