Changes To IRD Admin System

The manner in which we interact with Inland Revenue (IRD) is likely to change dramatically over the next two years as the upgrade of IRD’s IT system and associated legislation comes on-line. IRD’s broad objective is to reduce the amount of time and cost it and private business spends on tax administration by modernising its … Read more

GST On Foreign Supplies

Imposing Goods and Services Tax (GST) on the digital economy has been a hot topic this year as New Zealand retailers push for equal GST treatment between local and foreign suppliers. At present, foreign providers of cross-border services and intangibles (including music, e-books, videos and software purchased from offshore websites) do not have to pay … Read more

Modernising New Zealand’s Tax System

The Government has released two discussion papers to engage in public consultation on options for simplifying and modernising New Zealand’s tax system. The documents introduce taxpayers to the general direction the Government intends to take to improve administration of the tax system. Basically, the Government wants to simplify tax for individuals and businesses by reducing … Read more

Tax and Expenditure

The “general permission” under the Income Tax Act broadly allows expenditure to be deductible if it is: incurred in deriving assessable income, or incurred in the course of carrying on a business for the purpose of deriving assessable income. A recent Taxation Review Authority (TRA) case provides a strong reminder to us of the importance … Read more

Tax Payments – When Received In Time

Despite our best efforts, many of us are familiar with the consequences of making late tax payments to the IRD. Often, the problem is not just that we forget and leave it to the last minute, but that the payment we make is not processed or received by the IRD in time. Late payment penalties … Read more