A race-based discount for iwi businesses built into the proposed capital gains tax released yesterday shows that the Tax Working Group believes that Maori can’t achieve without a tax break, Hobson’s Pledge spokesman Don Brash said today.

The Tax Working Group’s final report recommended that iwi-owned businesses would pay a discounted rate of 17.5 percent, compared to 33 percent for other businesses.

The TWG has still not dealt with the anomaly that businesses run by charities are exempt from tax - also benefiting many iwi corporations as well as church-related businesses, Dr Brash said.

The Tax Working Group’s main recommendation is a tax on capital gains charged at 33 percent for most taxpayers, which is one of the most punitive capital gains tax regimes in the world, and more than twice the rate proposed by the Labour Party at the 2011 and 2014 elections.