The parties tax policies got an airing on Radio New Zealand's third campaign debate on Sunday 19 October.
Differences included not just whether taxes should be cut, but whom and what should be taxed.
Labour's finance spokesperson Michael Cullen said the tax cuts that took affect from October did place constraints on other social spending options.
He said it had become clear that the economic fallout from the international situation was worse than was thought even two or three weeks ago.
Dr Cullen said it was very important to maintain options at this point and the 1 October tax cuts had fed more than $2 billion of spending power into the economy.
National's finance spokesperson Bill English said lower taxes gave more incentives for work, savings and investments.
And he said the incoming government would also have to work on a longer term programme, saying households could get through tough times if they believed things could get better.
Mr English said it was incumbent on the political leadership of any incoming government to help generate a bit of confidence.
United Future said taxes were still too high, ACT said they were much too high while the Greens wanted the first $10,000 of everyone's income to be tax free and replaced with eco-taxes.
The Progressives said while many children are living in poverty, tax cuts for the wealthy should be the last thing New Zealand should be doing.
