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Leaky home repairs concluded as not deductible

The leaky homes crisis represents one of the most severe problems faced by New Zealand’s property sector and continues to cause stress and anxiety for those affected. Adding to the uncertainty for rental property owners has been the question of whether repair costs are immediately deductible as ’repairs and maintenance’ (R&M). Inland Revenue has assisted

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Taxation Principles Reporting Bill

The Taxation Principles Reporting Bill was introduced to parliament on 18 May 2023, and has since been reviewed by the Finance and Expenditure committee. If passed, it will require the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to report on New Zealand’s current tax settings based on specific principles. A hybrid reporting model will be used where a

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Tax policy from two sides of the political aisle

Given that either Labour or National are likely to enter into coalition agreements of some form with the Green Party and Act, respectively, and the tax policies of the two main parties are more ‘vanilla’, it is worth reviewing the tax policies of the two minor parties as this is where unexpected change may come

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Tax ourselves out of recession?

The buoyant covid subsidy funded days are behind us, New Zealand has entered a ‘technical’ recession. This was reinforced by the recent announcement that New Zealand’s corporate tax paid was almost 11% down in the 11 months to May relative to Government expectations. A drop in the corporate tax take reflects the declining profits of

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Snippets: Proposed amendment to directors’ duty

One of the fundamental director’s duties within the NZ Companies Act 1993 (‘the Act’) is to act in good faith and in what the director believes to be the best interest of the company. This has traditionally been interpreted to mean decisions should be aimed at maximising shareholder returns. In September 2021, an amendment was

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Snippets: Global tax rates

Inland Revenue made the headlines end of April 2023 with the release of its report on the amount of tax paid by our high-wealth individuals (HWIs). The findings were that HWIs’ overall effective tax rate when taking into account all sources of income, including unrealised capital gains, is 8.9%. The Treasury simultaneously released a number

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Trust distributions and tax rate change

Using a trust to manage and protect a family’s business and personal assets has been a common practice in New Zealand. However, with the recent increase in the amount of information required to be supplied to Inland Revenue, and now the Government’s decision, as part of its 2023 Budget, to increase the trust tax rate

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Environmental correctness

The call for action regarding climate change and mitigating man’s negative impact on the planet is not new. However, there has been a shift in the last few years. It has moved from being a focus of ‘greenies’ and the ‘young’ to being accepted by the mainstream population as something that can no longer be

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Deductibility of holding costs for land

On 31 March 2023, Inland Revenue released a draft interpretation statement (PUB00417) addressing the deductibility of land holding costs – namely, interest, rates and insurance – and the relevance of whether the land is taxed on disposal. This had been an area of uncertainty since the introduction of the residential bright-line provisions in 2015, which

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Flooding events tax concessions

In response to the adverse weather events that hit in January and February this year, a number of tax concessions were released on 14 March 2023 in an attempt to provide some relief to those who were impacted. The events have been collectively given the legislated name “North Island flooding events”, which has been defined

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From My Desk: May – July 2023

Greetings, The government has finally decided that we are in recession. The people (Tax payers) knew this, way before Christmas and were starting to adjust their spending habits – less lattes, less haircuts (I have been saving on those since 1/1/2000). You can see the impact of this now in the cities as mortgage interest

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Snippets: Marginal tax rates

In New Zealand, a marginal tax rate system is used to tax an individual’s income, i.e. the tax rate increases as one’s income increases. As at today, the marginal tax rates are as follows: Taxable income bracket Applicable tax rate $0 to $14,000 10.5% $14,001 to $48,000 17.5% $48,001 to $70,000 30% $70,001 to $180,000

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