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Snippets: Private school donations
Private schools will typically be registered as a charity. As such, parents will sometimes treat payments to the school as a charitable donation for tax purposes. Inland Revenue are making it clear on its interpretation on this subject through the release in October 2022 of QB 22/09 – Income Tax – Payments made by parents
Provisional tax regime
In New Zealand the provisional tax regime is designed to help taxpayers manage their income tax obligations, by requiring certain taxpayers to pay tax in instalments throughout the year, instead of one large lump sum at the end of the year. This regime applies to taxpayers who have residual income tax (RIT) of greater than
IRD – Whether a subdivision was subject to income tax and GST
In November 2022 Inland Revenue issued TDS 22/21, a Technical Decision Summary on whether the profit from a subdivision was subject to income tax and GST. TDS 22/21 covered a dispute involving a subdivision by the taxpayer of land into two lots. The taxpayer had acquired the property for the purpose of renovating and expanding
Residential property – A class of its own
Despite recent reductions in property prices, there is little doubt that the passion New Zealanders have for investing in residential property will survive. However, the tax treatment of residential rental investments has increasingly become a tangled web of complexity due to changes in legislation over the past few years. It used to be that ‘mum
From my desk: February – April 2023
Greetings, Belated Happy New Year, we trust everyone had a lovely Christmas/New Year period and hopefully got to put their feet up for a bit. We hope that the recent weather events have not affected our clients too much. Recently we had wind, rain then sunshine and an earthquake – Crazy! If you were badly
Labour Shortages
A new year’s resolution to grow your business is likely to require growing your team. It’s fair to say that the labour market is tight at the moment and seems to be getting tighter with each passing month. Recruitment for staff is taking much longer, with a reduction in both the number and skills of
From My Desk: Nov 2022 – Jan 2023
Greetings, We are working hard to get all your financials completed and tax returns filed. Currently we are about 10% behind last season (similar to many dairy farmers). Whilst we have not been impacted by the climate, staff have been off work for many reasons causing delays in our production. If you do require your
Snippets: Is it confectionary or ingredient?
Here in New Zealand, we value simplicity and we call things as we see them. A spade’s a spade and a marshmallow is confectionary. However, over in the UK, things are a bit more complicated. Value Added Tax (VAT) is charged on goods and services (like GST is in NZ) but is subject to a
Snippets: IRD and close relationship transfers
For example, where parents dispose of residential land to their child within the bright-line period, the sale will be taxable to the parents based on the market value of the land, regardless of how much the child paid for it. Similarly, where a person wholly-owns land and wishes to become co-owners with their partner, a
GST 101
New Zealand’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) system is often praised for being a simple broad-based tax. But this doesn’t mean mistakes don’t happen. Going back to basics, if you carry out a taxable activity in New Zealand and your turnover is more than $60,000 in a 12-month period, you are required to register for
FBT updates
On 29 August 2022 Inland Revenue released a 49-page report: “Fringe benefit tax: regulatory stewardship review”, which reports the summary, findings and recommendations of a review of New Zealand’s current Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) regime – a regime whose design and operation has not been subject to a full review for nearly 20 years. The
Update – GST on farmhouses and holiday homes
In 2017 Inland Revenue released an Interpretation Statement, IS 17/02, which formalised the long-standing practice of allowing a farmer to claim a portion of their farmhouse expenditure on the basis it is the “headquarters” of the farm. But then in 2020 Interpretation Statement IS 20/05 was released by Inland Revenue which overthrew the common practice
