KiwiSaver and the tax treatment of retirement saving in NZ

Abstract

For nearly twenty years the retirement system in New Zealand was uniquely simple, comprising just a basic state pension and voluntary unsubsidised private saving. The neutral tax treatment of retirement saving, formalised in the 1993 Accord for Superannuation, was an important counterpart to the eventual provision of New Zealand Superannuation as a fully universal basic income. This paper reviews how tax neutrality was introduced, how it was undermined and finally abandoned in 2007, and questions whether the next New Zealand tax experiment is well grounded.