NZ abandons plans for capital gains tax -The Asian Age

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Wednesday abandoned plans for a capital gains tax despite strongly backing it at the last election, leaving New Zealand among a handful of developed countries not to impose such a levy.

The surprise decision, which reflected a split in her Labour coalition government, came after a tax working group that Ardern set up after the poll reported back that it supported the concept.

Ardern was forced to back down when she could not get consensus in her three-party coalition, with her deputy Prime Minister Winson Peters - who heads the minority New Zealand First Party - firmly against it. Backers of the CGT - a levy on profits from asset sales - had argued New Zealand needed a fairer tax system with a better distribution of wealth.

Opinion polls had shown most New Zealanders opposed a CGT and Peters said there was "neither a compelling rationale nor mandate to institute a comprehensive capital gains tax regime".

-uAFP, Wellington