Taxation for New Zealand’s future: The introduction of New Zealand’s progressive income tax in 1891

Abstract

The Land and Income Assessment Act of 1891 introduced both New Zealand's first income tax and the principle of progression into New Zealand's taxation system. Its passage through Parliament provided a rare opportunity for Parliament to discuss taxation policy at the level of broad policy, rather than at the level of specific measures. The 1891 Parliamentary Debates provide evidence of the thinking of Parliament on such fundamental issues as the legitimacy of taxation, the focus of taxation, and the question of progressiondiscussions which continue to this day. This article reviews these parliamentary discussions by discussing the contemporary context, and how the 1891 Bill was defended and opposed. The resulting discussion enhances understandings of the past and provides a basis for further interpretation and application.

Narrating history: New Zealand’s “Black Budget” of 1958

“…These questions relate to the two types of researchers identified by Weber (1949: 112): subject matter specialists and interpretive specialists. Recent accounting historians have labelled these as narrative or interpretational (Previts et al, 1990), or as intellectual or utilitarian (Napier, 1989: 238; Vosslamber, 2012) approaches to history. The former seek to establish and/or describe items of fact, while the latter seek to evaluate relationships and provide interpretations in the manner of a social science (Fleischman et al, 1996; Previts et al, 1990).…”