Description: The new Act sets the annual rates of income tax for the 2018-19 tax year and simplifies and modernises the administration of individuals' income tax and modernises aspects of the Tax Administration Act 1994, such as the information collection and disclosure provisions. The new Act also implements several other policy changes, such as enhancing the KiwiSaver rules, and contains a large number of technical changes to ensure the tax rules work as intended.

Description: The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018-19, Modernising Tax Administration, and Remedial Matters) Act 2019 has introduced changes that will simplify individuals' year-end income tax filing obligations and will help people to use more appropriate rates of withholding during the year.

Description: A number of amendments have been made that will simplify the end of year income tax obligations of individuals and some of the processes that Inland Revenue performs.

Description: Several amendments have been introduced to improve the process for issuing refunds and advising individuals that they have tax to pay or are due a refund. New write-off rules have also been introduced to reduce compliance costs and improve the fairness and integrity of the tax system. Together, these changes will simplify the rules so that more individuals can understand their obligations and meet those with minimal effort.

Description: Several amendments have been made to enable Inland Revenue to take proactive actions during the year to help people use appropriate tax rates or codes to minimise year-end debts and refunds.

Description: Several amendments have been made to enable Inland Revenue to help individuals use tailored tax codes to ensure that the rate of withholding tax on their income, including secondary sources of income, is appropriate during the year.

Description: Amendments have been made to clarify whether individuals who derive the above sources of income will have filing requirements under the new individuals' income tax regime.

Description: Information is critical to Inland Revenue's ability to deliver services. Much of that information is provided by taxpayers. This may be information about themselves (such as in an individual or business income tax return) or about other taxpayers (such as in an employment information schedule). Inland Revenue has significant powers to enforce the provision of information that is not received through regular channels, but the use of these powers is the exception rather than the rule.

Description: The binding rulings system is a fee-based service provided by Inland Revenue and governed by Part 5A of the Tax Administration Act 1994. It provides certainty to taxpayers by binding the Commissioner to the position taken in the ruling. There are different types of binding ruling, including private and product rulings.

Description: Consistent with the 'right-from-the-start' framework, greater upfront certainty will be available for taxpayers through amendments that extend the scope of matters on which the Commissioner of Inland Revenue can issue binding rulings. In addition to the introduction of short process rulings, several improvements have been made to the binding rulings regime.

Description: Amended section 113A will allow taxpayers to correct errors made in returns for income tax, GST and fringe benefit tax in the next return due following discovery of the error, provided the tax discrepancy caused by the error does not exceed certain thresholds set within the legislation.

Description: An amendment has been made to section 89N(1)(c)(ix) of the Tax Administration Act 1994 to clarify that the disputes process in Part 4A of the Act can be suspended pending the outcome of a test case

Description: Section 108B of the Tax Administration Act 1994 has been amended to clarify the period of time for which a taxpayer and the Commissioner can agree to a time bar waiver.

Description: As part of Inland Revenue's Business Transformation, it will extend its online services to tax agents and other third party providers of tax services. In doing so, a concern is protecting the revenue base and the integrity of the tax system against any potential risks arising from providers' use of these services.

Description: The amendments provide that an overpayment of employment income subject to PAYE which is not repaid to the employer remains taxable as PAYE income.

Description: Currently taxpayers who are otherwise eligible to pay provisional tax under the accounting income method (AIM) can only elect to use AIM prior to their first payment date under AIM. Once the income year has commenced this means they will have to wait until the next income year to use AIM. This amendment allows those taxpayers who currently use another provisional tax method (other than the estimation method) to switch to AIM at any time during an income year prior to the final payment due under AIM for that person.

Description: This amendment alters the current payment allocation rules to allow Inland Revenue to continue to apply payments towards use-of-money interest (UOMI) first but to the oldest debt within a period first. This method will result in a larger proportion of payments being allocated to core tax liabilities which will reduce any overall UOMI cost to taxpayers.

Description:

Description: This amendment corrects an unintended change to the application of the use-of-money interest (UOMI) rules to taxpayers who are not new provisional taxpayers but who are only required to pay provisional tax in one or two instalments. This amendment restores the intended policy position to that prior to the unintended change and includes a savings provision for a very limited number of taxpayers who have requested and received cancellation of UOMI under the unintended legislation.

Description: Provisional tax payments have their own special payment allocation rule. Currently this can result in taxpayers being left with a balance of use-of-money interest (UOMI) owing which is not incurring interest itself. This is contrary to the policy intent behind the charging of interest. This section alters that payment allocation rule for provisional tax payments to ensure that taxpayers will not be left with a balance made up solely of UOMI.

Description: As part of Budget 2016, the Government removed incremental late payment penalties on income tax, goods and services tax and working for families debt. This also removed incremental penalties on imputation and Maori Authority credit accounts as part of the migration of those accounts into the START technology platform.

Description: This amendment changes the date an income tax credit that arises from tax withheld or deducted on their behalf is available where a taxpayer files a return of income before the end of the tax year for some reason. The credit will now be available from the day on or after the date the return is filed. Generally, this will apply to taxpayers who have died, migrated or liquidated.

Description: The annual income tax rates for the 2018-19 tax year are the rates specified in schedule 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007.

Description: The amendment to the notional single person concession for public unit trusts applies for the 2008-09 and later income years to align with the start of the Income Tax Act 2007. The other amendments apply from 18 March 2019, the date of Royal assent.

Description: The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018-19, Modernising Tax Administration, and Remedial Matters) Act 2019 (the 'ARMTARM Act') makes a number of enhancements to KiwiSaver, based on recommendations made in the Retirement Commissioner's 2016 review of retirement income policies.

Description: In Budget 2018, the Government announced its intention to amend the tax treatment of expenditure incurred on high quality yearlings when an investor has an intention to breed for profit in the future. The Government's expectation is that, on average, 20 thoroughbred and 10 standardbred yearlings will qualify each year. The policy objective is to encourage new investment in the New Zealand racing industry.

Description: Certain Crown controlled companies listed in schedule 4A of the Public Finance Act 1989 have been given their own income tax exemption, and a goods and services tax ('GST') provision comparable to that of public authorities to help ensure that GST input tax can be claimed back.

Description: The following charities have been granted donee status for the 2018-19 and later income years:

Description: This amendment provides an alternative definition of market interest that banks and other money lenders can elect to use for valuing the fringe benefit of a loan provided to an employee. The new definition of market interest for a given employee and loan type is the lowest rate given around the same time by their employer in the ordinary course of business to a customer with a similar profile to the employee. The amendment is intended to address the over-taxation of employment related loans that occurred under the original definition of market interest

Description: A securitisation is a funding mechanism that involves issuing marketable securities that are backed by the expected cash flows from specific assets. Securitisations can have a number of commercial benefits compared with other funding mechanisms, such as risk management and lower cost of funding.

Description: Amendments have been made to the Income Tax Act 2007 to exclude the Housing New Zealand corporate group (HNZ) from the land tainting rules. Consequential amendments have been made to sections CB 15, CV 1, CV 2, FM 9 and FM 15 to ensure the exclusion achieves its intended effect.

Description: Offshore persons are required to provide evidence of a New Zealand bank account before an IRD number can be issued to them. Following an earlier amendment, from 29 March 2018, the Commissioner can issue IRD numbers to offshore persons without New Zealand bank accounts if the Commissioner is satisfied with their identity and background. This provides a remedy for instances when the bank account requirement made it difficult or impossible for offshore persons to comply with their New Zealand tax obligations, while at the same time ensuring that Inland Revenue's identity checks remain robust.

Description: The amendment ensures that the expenditure incurred by businesses for remediating noise is deductible under section DB 46 of the Income Tax Act 2007, on the same basis as other pollution remediation expenditure

Description: Input tax deductions can be claimed by a GST-registered non-profit body ('NPB') for all GST incurred for any activity other than an exempt activity (such as one involving the supply of donated goods). The receipt and payment of donations is outside the scope of GST rather than specifically exempt.

Description: The adverse event scheme is an essential component of the Primary Sector Recovery Policy administered by the Ministry for Primary Industries. The scheme provides for a deferral of tax payable from forced sales of livestock because of a localised adverse event (for example, damage to pasture caused by a flood on a farming unit). This scheme is one of several income equalisation schemes available to primary industries.

Description: New disability support payment options have been introduced as part of a wider transformation of the disability support system aimed at giving disabled people and their families greater control over their lives and supports.

Description: Several amendments have been made to the Income Tax Act 2007 to eliminate incidences of double taxation that arise in circumstances where a backdated personal service rehabilitation payment is paid to an ACC claimant.

Description: The average abatement rate, threshold and family tax credit rate have been repealed as they are no longer required.

Description: During the implementation of the Families Package legislation it was not clear that the legislation allowed Inland Revenue to pay Working for Families tax credits payments, including Best Start, to recipients of an income-tested benefit, when the entitlement was unabated.

Description: The amendment clarifies that a person can receive the Best Start tax credit and paid parental payments for the same child.

Description: A minor retrospective amendment has been made to enable the payment of the parental tax credit on a pro-rata basis to qualifying persons. The amendment reflects the original policy intent.

Description: A minor retrospective amendment has been made to enable the payment of the parental tax credit on a pro-rata basis to qualifying persons. The amendment reflects the original policy intent.

Description: A number of minor amendments to the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 have been made to remedy situations where the legislation previously did not give effect to the policy intent, or where there were obvious errors.

Description: Certain taxable income or tax deductions, which can arise from contingent payments under a foreign currency denominated ASAP (agreement for the sale and purchase of goods or services), have been removed from the tax base. Previously these contingent payments were regarded as being interest and thus were automatically in the tax base

Description: The rules for taxing land sales contain exclusions where land is used as a person's main home. As a result of the re-write, these exclusions contained minor errors, which meant that they did not operate as intended.

Description: The rules for taxing land sales contain exclusions where land is used as a person's main home. As a result of the re-write, these exclusions contained minor errors, which meant that they did not operate as intended.

Description: The bright-line test for sales of residential land has been extended to apply to disposals of land within five years (from two years originally). The five-year bright-line test will apply if someone first acquired an estate or interest in the land they are disposing of on or after 29 March 2018. The two-year bright-line test will continue to apply to disposals of land if a person first acquired an estate or interest in the land on or after 1 October 2015 but before 29 March 2018.

Description: The bright-line test for sales of residential land has been extended to apply to disposals of land within five years (from two years originally). The five-year bright-line test will apply if someone first acquired an estate or interest in the land they are disposing of on or after 29 March 2018. The two-year bright-line test will continue to apply to disposals of land if a person first acquired an estate or interest in the land on or after 1 October 2015 but before 29 March 2018.

Description: The amendments address some technical issues identified during an administrative review of the taxation of trusts relating to a trustee of a foreign trust that settles property of that trust (the head trust) onto a sub-trust (a resettlement).

Description: The amendment clarifies that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue may make a binding ruling for any record-keeping requirement in the Tax Administration Act 1994

Description: The amendment clarifies that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue may make a binding ruling for any record-keeping requirement in the Tax Administration Act 1994

Description: Some technical changes have been made to the hybrid and branch mismatch rules which were introduced by the Taxation (Neutralising Base Erosion and Profit Shifting) Act 2018

Description: Section GB 54 is a permanent establishment anti-avoidance rule. The rule applies if (amongst other things) a supply is made by a non-resident to a recipient in New Zealand, and a related party (referred to as the 'facilitator') carries out an activity for the purpose of bringing about that supply.

Description: Section YD 4(17D) provides that income has a source in New Zealand if New Zealand has a right to tax it under a double tax agreement. Sections YD 4(15) to (17) contain source rules under which only a portion of the relevant types of income have a source in New Zealand.

Description: Section DB 18AA of the Income Tax Act 2007 contains a simplified method for taxpayers to claim deductions for dual use (business/personal) premises. There is a technical problem with the formula used to calculate this deduction. The formula provides for the total mortgage interest and rates, or rent, for the property (premise costs) to be multiplied by the percentage of the building (for example, the house) used primarily for business purposes.

Description: A limited partner (unlike an ordinary partner) is not legally liable for the debts of a limited partnership. To reflect this, a limited partner is prevented from claiming deductions for the losses of a limited partnership under section HG 11 to the extent the losses exceed the partner's economic exposure to them.

Description: Section 81(4)(z) permitted the Commissioner to share certain information with a 'member of the New Zealand Police'. Under the Policing Act 2008, the term 'member of the New Zealand Police' must be read as a reference to a 'constable'. Constables are Police employees who have taken the constable's oath (a sworn member).

Description: Remedial changes have been made to the dividend and quantification rules in the Income Tax Act 2007 as they apply to shares received by New Zealand shareholders because of a company split (demerger) by Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed Australian companies.

Description: Remedial changes have been made to the dividend and quantification rules in the Income Tax Act 2007 as they apply to shares received by New Zealand shareholders because of a company split (demerger) by Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listed Australian companies.

Description: Currently, Inland Revenue has two legislative provisions to disclose information to taxpayers - one enabling disclosure to the taxpayer directly, and another enabling disclosure to someone using a software package on their behalf. However, the current legislative provisions are too narrow to enable a broad range of digital services to be provided to taxpayers.

Description: The amendments relate to some matters identified in an administrative review of a 1989 Tax Information Bulletin item on the taxation of trusts. The outcome of that review was published in IS18/01 Taxation of Trusts - Income Tax.

Description: Amendments have been made to the tax rules for charities and donee organisations to improve the integrity and coherency of the tax system as it applies to these entities. The changes to the rules for deregistered charities ensure that if an entity has claimed tax exemptions as a charity and has accumulated assets, these assets are destined for a charitable purpose, even if the entity is deregistered under the Charities Act 2005.

Description: Sections EZ 23B and EZ 23BB have been amended to allow depreciation roll-over relief for properties affected by the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. A prerequisite for a person to receive the depreciation relief is that the person obtains replacement property in Canterbury

Description: The new section CZ 25B allows the owners of revenue account property that is land and buildings affected by the Hurunui / Kaikoura earthquake in November 2016 the similar rollover treatment as for the owners of property affected by the Canterbury earthquakes in 2010-2011.

Description: Section RD 5 of the Income Tax Act 2007 has been amended so that honoraria received by fire and emergency volunteers from the Fire and Emergency New Zealand are now treated as 'salary and wages' and subject to PAYE rules. This amendment ensures that such volunteers are no longer required to file separate income tax returns for taxable honoraria they receive (and to separately account for the ACC levies).

Description: The provision is an anti-avoidance rule to ensure that land held on revenue account is treated as continuing to be on revenue account for a subsequent disposal of that land when it is transferred to an associated person.

Description: The 10-year relief rule applies to a vendor of land if the vendor was associated with a land dealer, land developer or a builder at a certain point of time within the 10 years prior to the sale.

Description: The rewrite of this provision into the Income Tax Act inadvertently included all previous amounts of extra pay within that fourweek period when calculating the annualised amount. This inadvertent drafting change could result in too much PAYE being withheld. The amendment restores the intended effect and confirms current practice.

Description: This savings provision relates to amendments made to section OP 22 (use of pre-consolidation imputation credits) by the Taxation (Annual Rates 2017-18, Employment and Investment Information and Remedial Matters) Act 2019 (the 'EII Act') (retrospective to the beginning of the 2008-09 income year).

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Description: The household income threshold for the minimum family tax credit ('MFTC'), which guarantees eligible low-income families a minimum level of after-tax income, rises from $26,156 to $26,572 per year, on 1 April 2019.

Description: This Question We've Been Asked (QWBA) is about claiming tax deductions for payments to family members for services. It will be of interest to those paying family members for services from a business or other income earning activity.

Description: We have been asked to clarify whether a change of use event occurs for depreciation purposes when a business becomes a charity but continues to apply its assets in the same way it did before becoming a charity. The question has been raised because the change of use event could give rise to depreciation recovery income

Description: Standard practice statements describe how the Commissioner of Inland Revenue (the Commissioner) will exercise a statutory discretion or deal with practical issues arising out of the administration of the Inland Revenue Acts. This Statement sets out the factors that the Commissioner will consider when forming an opinion as to whether a taxpayer has made a full voluntary disclosure to the Commissioner of all the details of a tax shortfall.

Description: This operational statement lists the persons who are able to confirm an income statement of a deceased person under s RZ 15 of the Income Tax Act 2007 (ITA 2007) and who can provide information to the Commissioner to finalise a deceased person's tax account under s 22F of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (TAA 94) where the deceased does not have a will and no executor or administrator has been appointed.

Description: This was a liquidation rehearing. The Court found that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue ('the Commissioner') had established the grounds for making an order of liquidation and accordingly placed Chesterfields Preschools Limited ('CPL') into liquidation.

Description: This was a liquidation rehearing. The Court found that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue ('the Commissioner') had established the grounds for making an order of liquidation and accordingly placed Chesterfields Preschools Limited ('CPL') into liquidation.

Description: This was an application for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court on the basis the Court of Appeal did not apply the principles set out in Commissioner of Inland Revenue v Diamond [2015] NZCA 613 ('Diamond') to Mr van Uden's case. In addition, Mr van Uden challenged decisions about taxation of his employer's superannuation fund; whether the reassessment was properly made given the position of the officer who made it; and, as to the penalties imposed.

Description: The Tax Review Authority ('the TRA') concluded that the use of the phrase 'stops deriving income from the sale of specified livestock' in s EC 20 of Income Tax Act 2007 ('the ITA') is to be read as requiring a permanent stop. A 'stop' for one income year is not sufficient to be able to use the livestock valuation provisions in s EC 20.

Description: The Commissioner of Inland Revenue's ('the Commissioner') Notice of Response ('NOR') was filed within two months of the decision by the Taxation Review Authority ('the TRA') that the Commissioner should have accepted the Doug Vesey Trust's ('the Trust') Notice of Proposed Adjustment ('NOPA') out of time pursuant to s 89K of the Tax Administration Act 1994 ('the TAA'). In her judgment, Peters J upheld the finding of the TAA that the Commissioner's NOR was filed in time and there was no deemed acceptance of the Trust's NOPA.