New Zealand banks and their taxes

By | January 8, 2023

One of the most talked about topics since its invention, and will likely be one of the most talked about until the end of time (at least in our time): taxes.

Today – we’ll take a closer look at each of the smallest and largest banks operating in New Zealand, their tax rates, how much they paid, and how much they should have paid.

Before we begin – New Zealand’s official corporate tax rate is a flat 28%. Since most banks act as a business – use this number to rate them.

All of the data you see in the following table has been taken directly from our most recent year-end financial statements.

We encourage you to view these statements yourself. There is a link in the final column of each row.

Tax Paid – New Zealand Banks

Graphs

We love graphs, and we know you do too.

Here are some for you to play around with. First up – a pie chart providing us with a neat visualisation of just how much more tax the Big 4 banks pay.

Total Taxes Paid – Individual Banks ($)

Next up – the monetary value of the amount of tax missing from each bank’s due tax payable according to their financial statements.

A negative value indicates they’ve paid more than the set 28% in tax.

Tax Missing from 28% Rate ($)

Lastly – the tax rate according to the total amount of tax they’ve paid and their net profit before tax.

You’ll notice many sit right around the 28% mark, with only a few outliers far out on one side and the other.

Tax Rate Paid (%)
Fun Facts

  • Four banks (ANZ, ASB, WESTPAC, BNZ) contributed 91.44% of tax for the total banking industry
  • The average tax rate for all banks is 24.87%
  • However, the weighted average tax rate based on net profit is 27.46%
  • It’s an even 50/50 split on those who paid more than 28% and those who paid less than 28%
  • Only a single bank made a net loss for the period – Bank of China (who received a tax credit)
  • Bank of Baroda had the lowest tax rate of 2.95% – meaning it paid only 10.5% of the tax it was supposed to
  • In total – $1.779 billion in tax was collected from New Zealand’s banks
  • In total – $34.44 million was not collected in tax from New Zealand’s banks
  • However – the New Zealand government achieved a 98.06% rate of tax collection (only missing 1.94% of tax)

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