Ardern's 'captain's call' to not rule out capital gains tax

Labour leader Jacinda Ardern has not ruled out introducing a capital gains tax if she leads the next Government.

Ardern has revealed it was her own "captain's call" to not rule out introducing a capital gains tax on rental properties or second homes next term.

She made the comments while fielding questions during a special PM Job Interview with the Herald, facing a panel hosted by Heather du Plessis-Allan and featuring Audrey Young, Liam Dann and Toby Manhire.

Labour will wait to hear what a planned tax working group recommends on the matter, Ardern said - but waiting to act until after the 2020 election was too long. It would not apply to the family home, she said.

"It is different leadership, different decisions," Ardern said. "Andrew [Little] made a call that he would go back to the electorate.

"I made a call that if I was in government and presented with a tax working group paper that suggested these are the things you need to do to be able to tackle the housing crisis and inequality in your tax system, to then sit on that for one, maybe two years without doing anything didn't feel right to me."

She had talked to finance spokesman Grant Robertson, but it was ultimately a "captain's call".

Asked if she could rule out raising top tax rates if in government, Ardern said she wanted to wait until Treasury tomorrow issued its Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update (Prefu) before making such decisions.

Labour is likely to redo its fiscal plan within a week of the books being opened.

National has ruled out a capital gains tax, but did introduce a measure called a bright line test in 2015. It requires anyone who resells a property (except the family home) within two years to pay tax on any capital gains - regardless of whether they aimed to make a profit or not.

Labour wants the bright line test to be extended to five years.

The Greens are the only party which has confirmed policy to introduce a capital gains tax on property.