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 [...]

  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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]