Description: The Commissioner of Inland Revenue has released a determination, reproduced below, setting the national standard costs for specified livestock for the 2019-2020 income year. These costs are used by livestock owners as part of the calculation of the value of livestock on hand at the end of the income year, where they have adopted the national standard cost ('NSC') scheme to value any class of specified livestock

Description: The Arrangement is the leasing of livestock by StockCo Limited (StockCo) to its customers (Customers) to use in a farming business. Each Customer will be a 'New Zealand resident' (as defined in s YA 1). The leased livestock will either be purchased by StockCo from the Customer and will then be leased back to them, or will be specifically purchased by StockCo from a third party and then leased to the Customer.

Description: This Statement confirms the Commissioner's long-standing position on the GST liability of a GST registered third party claimant when they receive a payment for damages or loss incurred, including by way of settlement agreement, under a contract of insurance. The Commissioner's position is, and has been for many years, that when an insurer of an insured person pays an amount to a GST-registered third party claimant, in relation to a claim that the third party claimant has against the insured person, and the other requirements of section 5(13) of the Act are met, then the third party claimant must return GST on the receipt of that payment.

Description: This Statement sets out the Commissioner's practice for accepting tax payments as having been made in time. With the influence of technology there has been a significant shift in practice to use digital methods for making tax payments. The Commissioner encourages customers to use direct banking facilities when they make tax payments (or when refunds are issued).

Description: Under Part 10B of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (the TAA) taxpayers can request the Commissioner to transfer overpaid tax to another period or tax type within their own tax accounts or to the accounts of other entities or associates. They can also sometimes choose a date (the date of transfer) that a transfer of overpaid tax will be effective from. A question has arisen over the effect on the imputation credit account (ICA) of both transferor and transferee companies if an earlier date is chosen (as the TAA allows). It has been identified that in practice taxpayers, and Inland Revenue, have often treated the effective date as the date the transfer is processed rather than requiring adjustments to the ICA back to whatever earlier date has been chosen

Description: On 17 February the Office of the Chief Tax Counsel ('OCTC') was renamed the Tax Counsel Office. The new Tax Counsel Office (-TCO-) will continue to provide taxpayer rulings, public rulings and other interpretative statements, adjudications of tax disputes, and escalations and advising services. You will not see significant changes to the nature and quality of the TCO-s primary services, but the TCO will operate differently (internally) in several respects to provide timely rulings, guidance and advice on complex matters of law relating to tax and social policy.