Description: The depreciation rate for long-lived buildings was set to zero from the beginning of the 2011-12 income year. Long-lived buildings have an estimated useful life of 50 years or more. Buildings with a shorter estimated useful life have continued to be depreciable. The adjusted tax value of these buildings remained in the owner's tax accounts. There was a transitional rule for building owners who had not previously separated out items of fit-out from the building. This rule allowed deductions for a portion of the building's value each year

Description: This amendment permanently increases the residual income tax threshold for being required to pay provisional tax from $2,500 to $5,000. As a result, a number of taxpayers are no longer required to make provisional tax payments throughout the year. This will assist those businesses with cashflow issues during the COVID-19 outbreak and beyond.

Description: This amendment temporarily increases the low-value asset write-off threshold from $500 to $5,000 in the short term before decreasing this threshold to $1,000 on a permanent basis. This allows taxpayers to immediately deduct expenditure on assets that cost up to $5,000 (and subsequently $1,000) rather than depreciating them over the life of the asset. This will decrease the tax liabilities of taxpayers in the short term and therefore assist with cashflow including during the COVID-19 outbreak. It may also encourage continued investment by businesses in the short term.

Description: The amendment to section LA 5 brings forward the application date of new broader refundability rules, so that these can apply from the first year of the R&D Tax Incentive scheme.

Description: Use of money interest (UOMI) is charged when a taxpayer fails to make a payment of tax on time. This measure adds to existing legislative mechanisms that allow UOMI to be remitted. However, these pre-existing legislative mechanisms are not fit for purpose to respond to an event such as COVID-19. The amendment allows Inland Revenue to remit interest on a late payment if the taxpayer's ability to make the payment on time was significantly adversely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. This would include both when a taxpayer is physically unable to make a tax payment on time and when a taxpayer's financial capability to pay tax on time is adversely affected because of the economic nature of the COVID-19 outbreak.

Description: The amendment enables Inland Revenue to share taxpayer information with other government departments to assist the efficient and effective delivery of the Government's COVID-19 response.

Description: The In-Work Tax Credit is an income-tested cash payment of $3,770 per year to working families with children (plus an additional $780 per child for 4th and subsequent children). This amendment will remove the requirement for recipient families to normally be working at least 20 hours per week as a sole parent or a combined 30 hours per week as a couple.

Description: The amendment allows people on a temporary visa who would not otherwise meet the Working for Families (WFF) residency criteria, to qualify for WFF, if the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) has granted them an emergency benefit. This ensures that people on a temporary visa who are granted an emergency benefit will qualify for the same WFF components as other beneficiaries.

Description: The amendment provides that payments made by the Ministry of Social Development in relation to wages or other income, or leave taken, as a consequence of COVID-19, are not to be regarded as taxable grants and subsidies for the purposes of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985.

Description: This amendment reduced the rates of winter energy payment for 2021 and later years to $450 for single people with no dependent children (down from $900) and $700 for couples or single people with dependent children (down from $1,400). This restored the 2019 rates after a temporary doubling in the rates for 2020.

Description: New Zealand's list of participating jurisdictions for the purposes of the Common Reporting Standard (CRS rules) and requirements under Part 11B of the Tax Administration Act 1994 has been amended with effect from the 1st of April 2020 as follows:

Description: New Zealand's list of reportable jurisdictions was updated on 24 February 2020, by the following Order in Council: the Tax Administration (Reportable Jurisdictions for the Application of CRS Standard) Amendment Regulations 2020 (LI 2020/23). Reportable jurisdictions are relevant to the Common Reporting Standard (CRS rules) which was enacted in New Zealand in 2017 as part of New Zealand's implementation of the G20/OECD Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, or AEOI. Reportable jurisdictions are territories to which Inland Revenue (IRD) will provide certain information on non-residents that is reported to IRD by financial institutions in accordance with the CRS rules.

Description: New Zealand's Double Tax Agreement (DTA) with Switzerland and Tax Information Exchange Agreement (TIEA) with Guernsey have been updated. These updates are part of a wider programme to include provisions designed to prevent abuse and improve dispute resolution across New Zealand's wider double taxation agreement network. These provisions arose from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative.

Description: The use of money interest rates on underpayments and overpayments of taxes and duties have changed in line with market interest rates.

Description: A payment to landowners for permanently protecting native forest with high conservation values on their land can be exempted from income tax if the appropriate Order in Council is made. An Order in Council, made under the Forests Amendment Act 2004 (see Tax Information Bulletin Vol 16, No 8, p19), grants an income tax exemption in relation to payments made by the Nature Heritage Fund to the owner of blocks of land in the Rowallan Survey District and Alton Survey District. The payments, made over the course of October 2016 to November 2019, were in exchange for the owner entering into a conservation covenant over the blocks of land.

Description: The Tax Administration Act 1994 imposes an obligation on the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to keep sensitive revenue information confidential. This means that the Commissioner is not able to disclose sensitive revenue information unless the disclosure meets the requirements of one of the permitted disclosures under the Tax Administration Act 1994. The Commissioner has been able to disclose information about tax agents (or persons purporting to be tax agents) to associations and groups that represent them in certain circumstances. This reflects the fact that the Commissioner, in her interactions with tax agents in administering the tax and social policy systems she is responsible for administering, may become aware of information that the associations and groups that represent tax agents are not aware of. The Commissioner can therefore share this information in defined circumstances, which helps protect the integrity of the tax system.

Description: Some employers have made, or intend to make, payments to employees to reimburse costs incurred by their employees as a result of the employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inland Revenue has been asked to clarify the tax treatment of such payments. It is also acknowledged that many employers will not be in a financial position to make additional payments to employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. This Determination is not intended to suggest that employers should make such payments to employees.

Description: This Determination may be cited as Special Determination S63: Spreading of income and expenditure under an agreement for the sale and purchase of assets.

Description: This Determination may be cited as Special Determination S63: Spreading of income and expenditure under an agreement for the sale and purchase of assets.

Description: In accordance with Section 91AA of the Tax Administration Act 1994, the Commissioner advises adjustments have been made to the standard-cost amounts for the 2020 income year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020),

Description: In accordance with Section 91AA of the Tax Administration Act 1994, the Commissioner advises adjustments have been made to the standard-cost amounts for the 2020 income year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020),

Description: In accordance with Section 91AA of the Tax Administration Act 1994, the Commissioner advises adjustments have been made to the standard-cost amounts for the 2020 income year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020),

Description: In accordance with Section DB 18AA of the Income Tax Act 2007, the Commissioner advises that the square metre rate for the 2020 income year (1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020) is set at $42.75. The amount reflects the annual movement of the Consumers Price Index for the twelve months to March 2020, which showed an increase of 2.5%.

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