Luxon escapes having to pay $70,000 in ‘brightline’ capital gains taxes

The timing was fortuitous for Luxon, saving him over $70,000. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

Kia ora. Long stories short, here’s my top six things to note in Aotearoa’s political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Wednesday, October 2:

1. PM Christopher Luxon was able to escape having to pay ‘brightline’ capital gains taxes of up to $70,200 on the sale of his Kate Sheppard apartment in Wellington because the sale was delayed until after his Government changed the rule by the PM’s requirements for the refurbishment of Premier House, as reported last night by NZ Herald’s Thomas Coughlan and The Post-$$$’s Thomas Manch.

2. In the scoop of the day, Health NZ is looking at privatisation ownership and operation of hospitals.

3. In the deep-dive of the day, Māori are twice as likely to die or be hospitalised from accidental poisonings and overdoses.

4. In solutions news, Germany has installed 550,000 solar panel arrays on balconies in a year to generate 200 MegaWatts of solar.

5. In quote of the day, Luxon reassures listeners on NewstalkZB he’s not worried about his personal finances being discussed publicly because ‘it’s ok, I’m sorted.’

6. In charts of the day, the gap in business confidence in September between future and existing conditions was starker in NZIER’s survey released yesterday than in ANZ’s survey released on Tuesday.

(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)

1. Luxon escapes paying capital gains tax by a few months

Apartment sale gains would have been caught by test if done before July

Timing matters in politics, and in tax.