Richest Kiwis pay about half as much on the $ as the rest of us

[king1]

8.9% of a lot is still waaaaay more than 20% of not much.

A theoretical scenario:
Bob earns $70K/year, pays $550/week rent and spends the rest on stuff that attracts GST.  He pays $17.5K combined GST & Income tax per year or 25%.

John makes $5M taxable profit from the company he owns, from which he invests about $500K and spends the rest (after income tax) on stuff that attracts GST. He pays a combined total tax of just over $2M. His business and properties increased in value by 17.5M so his overall tax rate was only 8.9%.

Do you really think it unfair that Bob had to pay a whole $17.5K whereas John got away with "only" paying $2M?

I not really sure this is a reasonable comparison...  comparing actual dollar amounts as against percentages is only ever going to favour the wealthy - you might as well go with a flat rate of $200/week tax per person to be 'fair' by that measure


But where did your numbers come from?  paying $2M tax on the $5M taxable profit seems rather generous.