Introduction
This statement provides a first step towards providing additional transparency around policy-motivated ‘expenditures' made through the tax system. Tax expenditures take the form of an exemption, allowance, preferential tax rate, deferral or offset that reduce a tax obligation to achieve a specific policy objective.
This is the first time New Zealand has released tax expenditure data since 1984. This voluntary disclosure fills an obvious weakness in our current transparency arrangements by bringing New Zealand's financial reporting closer to OECD best practice standards. As with other disclosures, additional tax expenditure transparency is not intended to be a statement of policy effectiveness or desirability.
