In the 2023 tax year, the total amount of taxable income was $242.8 billion. That number is an 8.0% increase compared to the 2022 tax year.
The above graph shows the total taxable income declared by individuals by income tax band for the 2003, 2013 and 2023 tax years. Individuals with taxable income between $0 and $100 are not included in the above graph. This is because of high numbers and small amounts in total. The data for these groups is available in the download link at the bottom of the page.
The graphed distribution of total taxable income shows spikes of increased values of total taxable income at various taxable income levels below $30,000. This reflects taxable income tested benefits and New Zealand Superannuation. There are other spikes near the personal tax thresholds of $14,000, $48,000 and $70,000, where the personal tax rate increases. Since the 2022 income tax year, a new spike at $180,000 taxable income reflects a response to the new top individual income tax rate of 39% which applied 1 April 2021.
In the 2003 tax year the thresholds were different, and the spikes were at $38,000 and $60,000 of taxable income.
The graphed distributions stop at $150,000 of taxable income for the 2003 tax year and at $200,000 for the 2013 and 2023 tax years. Upper limits are available in the download link on the Tax on taxable income datasets page.
Tax on taxable income datasets
You can find more information about how these statistics were calculated on the Technical specifications page.