August 4, 2014 11:00am by David Farrar

ACT’s tax cuts

ACT says it can boost economic growth by a third with a policy to cut the company tax rate to 12.5 per cent.

Leader Jamie Whyte says this will increase investment, and job and GDP by one third, leading to higher wages.

He would fund the tax cut by slashing “corporate welfare,” worth about $1.5bn a year, and carbon trading, worth $164m.

Excellent. That would attract investment.

European and American studies suggest cutting the rate by 10 percentage points will make economies grow by between 1 and 2 per cent extra a year. Each 1 per cent reduction in the rate boosts wages by between 0.3 and 0.5 per cent, he said.

“No single policy proposal from any party in this election can do more to increase economic growth, create jobs and lift wages,” he added,

Company tax is a “terrible drag” on growth and wages while raising “relatively little” revenue, he argued.

Treasury estimates that every 1% reduction in the company tax rate has a fiscal loss to the Government of $220 million which is relatively modest.