Taxation is a perennial election issue, and 2011 is no exception.
The debate this year is especially strong, following a record budget deficit of $18.4 billion and National's tax cuts that critics say delivered thousands of dollars a year to high income earners, and relatively little to the not-so-well-off.
National's policy has long been to lower tax rates across the board in order to put more money back in the hands of voters. The argument is this boosts economic activity, and gives people more freedom to spend their money how they wish.
Tax on income up to $14,000 has come down 2 percent under National, and tax on income up to $48,000 is down 3.5 percent. But tax on income over $70,000 has been lowered 5 percent, giving weight to Labour's claim the tax cuts heavily favoured the wealthy.
Before the 2008 election National promised no increase in GST, saying they wouldn't need to if they did a "half decent job on growing the economy". Despite this, in May 2010 GST was raised from 12.5 percent to 15 percent.
Labour have promised to remove GST from fresh fruit and vegetables but leader Phil Goff might find it difficult to argue against the Government's moves on GST. He was a part of the Labour Government that not only introduced the 10 percent GST tax in the 1980s, but raised it to 12.5 percent.
Traditionally Labour has favoured slightly higher income brackets than National, either through raising taxes directly or allowing 'bracket creep', where tax rates and thresholds aren't changed for many years. The result of this is that through inflation, wages and salaries gradually move into higher tax brackets (as happened through Labour's recent three terms in Government).
This election, Labour is proposing a top tax bracket for people earning over $150,000 of 39c in the dollar. The party says this will raise $300 million a year, and only affect the top 2 percent of salary and wage earners. The party has not yet announced any other personal tax increases.
Labour has also proposed the first $5000 of all income be tax-free. The net result of these policies, according to Labour, will be that 98 percent of all earners will pay less income tax than they do under National.
National says the tax cuts it has already delivered have left 73 percent of New Zealanders paying 17.5 percent or less in tax. Their next step is to reduce company tax to 28 percent and tighten the Working for Families package, so higher income earners don't qualify for family tax credits.
Perhaps the most radical change to the tax system has been proposed by the Mana Party. Leader Hone Harawira has proposed the 'Hone Heke' tax, based on the European 'Robin Hood' tax movement.
The tax would be a 1 percent levy on transactions on the New Zealand Stock Exchange and in foreign exchange markets, and would replace GST and allow the first $15,000 of workers' income to be tax-free.