What’s at stake: Public misconceptions about Māori business taxation.
Background: More than 75% of Māori businesses (about 24,000) are standard companies paying the usual 28% corporate tax and PAYE like any other. A smaller subset (2800) are charities under the same rules as non-Māori charities, and about 5000 Māori Authorities use a 17.5% withholding tax aligned with their beneficiaries’ income levels.
Main players: Te Ao Māori business sector (SMEs, charities, Māori Authorities); Inland Revenue and tax policymakers; independent tax expert Geof Nightingale (2018 Tax Working Group member).
The belief that Māori businesses ‘get away without paying tax’ is a persistent myth – and it’s flat-out wrong, according to independent tax expert Geof Nightingale.
Nightingale, a former PwC partner and member of the 2018 Tax Working Group, says most Māori businesses are ordinary firms
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Key points
What’s at stake: Public misconceptions about Māori business taxation.
Background: More than 75% of Māori businesses (about 24,000) are standard companies paying the usual 28% corporate tax and PAYE like any other. A smaller subset (2800) are charities under the same rules as non-Māori charities, and about 5000 Māori Authorities use a 17.5% withholding tax aligned with their beneficiaries’ income levels.
Main players: Te Ao Māori business sector (SMEs, charities, Māori Authorities); Inland Revenue and tax policymakers; independent tax expert Geof Nightingale (2018 Tax Working Group member).
