How it Works

You will need a copy of your IRD number and NZ drivers licence in order to complete an on-line application. If you do not have a NZ drivers licence, you can still apply online, however you will be prompted to print out, complete and sign a copy of the PDF application form which you can either fax, FREEpost or scan & email it to us along with a photocopy of either your passport, 18+ Card, NZ firearms licence, international drivers permit or a NZ certificate of identity. See the Contact Us page for contact details.

On 1st April 2019, the Government introduced a law change that allows them to automatically assess all NZ wage and salary earners to determine if they have paid the correct amount of tax each year. Gone are the days of cherry picking refunds and ignoring years where you have paid too little tax. However this doesn't mean that you will automatically get a tax refund.

Due to this law change, we adapted our service to become a tax assessment and advisory service specialising in ensuring that wage & salary earners are compliant with the new law and that their automatic assessment is correct. You many have expenses to claim that will increase your refund. If you fail to notify IRD of this, their auto assessment will be incorrect. If you’ve ever tried calling IRD you’ll appreciate just how difficult and time consuming that can be. As your tax agent we can simplify and speed up this process for you and ensure that you never miss a tax refund that you are owed.

If the IRD do not hold your correct details, you may not ever receive the refund you are owed. Its up to you to notify the IRD of all required changes to ensure that your tax refund can be paid out. 

If you are a wage and salary earner, sole trader, contractor, self employed or own rental property, under the new law you will fall into one of 3 categories:

1. Autocalc assessment - Processed by IRD - No Extra Information Required
2. Autocalc - More Information Required
3. IR3 Return Required – Withholding Payments Income/Schedular Payments, Rental Income or untaxed income sources and reasons to be declared

Sounds confusing? – don’t worry, with unlimited FREE advice, our tax advisory services make the whole process fast and easy for you.

Category 1: Auto Assessed Tax Bill or Tax Refund Processed by IRD - No Extra Information Required.

As a client of our agency, if you fall into this category, we will make sure you are compliant with IRD. IRD’s autocalc assessment will NOT take into account any changes to your circumstances as they base the assessment on historic records that they hold for you. If you fail to notify them of changes that may affect your assessment, you could end up incurring penalties, interest or prosecution. We make it easy for our clients to ensure that they remain compliant at all times and ensure that you will always receive the biggest possible tax refund.

If the IRD do not hold your correct details, you may not ever receive the refund you are owed. It’s up to you to notify the IRD of all required changes to ensure that your tax refund can be paid out. If you're eligible, we will check to make sure you have received the Independent Earners Tax Credit and also we will claim any expenses or tax deductions available to you.

If you are issued a tax bill, first we will double check to ensure it is correct and see if there is anything we can do to reduce it or get it written off. We can also explain to you WHY you have a tax bill and what you should do to reduce the risk that this will happen again.

Contacting the IRD to notify them of any required changes is both time consuming and difficult. Often wait times are over 1 hour to speak to an IRD representative. Clients of our agency eliminate this complexity as we will always ensure your details are up to date, the assessment is correct and liaise with IRD on your behalf to resolve any issues.

Category 2: Autocalc - More Information Required

IRD won’t release your assessment (eg your tax refund) until some details have been confirmed with them. We liaise with you and notify the IRD of any changes that are required to the auto assessment and provide them with the info needed to complete the return and get your refund released asap. 

If the IRD do not hold your correct details, you may not ever receive the refund you are owed. It’s up to you to notify the IRD of all required changes to ensure that your tax refund can be paid out. We take care of this for you and if you're eligible, we will check to make sure you have received the Independent earners Tax Credit and we will claim any expenses or tax deductions available to you.

If you are issued a tax bill, first we will double check to ensure it is correct and see if there is anything we can do to reduce it or get it written off. We can also explain to you WHY you have a tax bill and what you should do to reduce the risk that this will happen again.

We will be your primary point of contact for the year in all tax matters. Contacting the IRD to notify them of any required changes is both time consuming and difficult. Often wait times are over 1 hour to speak to an IRD representative. We take care of this for you and will always act in your best interests.

Category 3: IR3 Return Required – Withholding Payments Income/Schedular Payments, Rental Income or untaxed income sources and reasons to be declared

This is where IRD require a full IR3 Tax return to be filed. No auto assessment will be issued. We gather the info from you and prepare your return (this does take a little more time) but we ensure you are compliant with IRD’s requirements, have declared everything you need to and more importantly have claimed all available tax deductions to improve your tax position. During the year we will provide unlimited FREE advice when you contact us and provide you with guidance and practical advice to help keep your tax affairs in order.

As always, our aim is to get you the biggest possible tax refund, or in the cases where you have received untaxed income, the smallest possible tax bill.

To Summarise:

There’s been a law change and we’ve adapted to ensure you receive the best possible tax advice and make it easy to ensure our clients are always compliant with IRD’s requirements.

We remain as your primary point of contact for all tax matters and can provided unlimited FREE advice to help improve your end of year tax position.

Our aim is to ensure that you receive the biggest possible tax refund, or the smallest possible tax bill. We do need to stay in contact with you throughout the year and you just need to keep us informed of any changes that might affect your tax assessment.

Contacting us is easy, via phone, email or the contact us page on our website. No need to wait on hold for hours when trying to call the IRD.

Plus, we have very low fees

NZ's lowest fee - just $23

Our experience, over the past 10 years, indicates that the IRD assessment of your refund eligibility is not always correct. We always aim to get you the biggest possible tax refund. 

For Wage & Salary earners who are NOT required to file an IR3, our low standard fee for assessing your eligibility for a tax refund is just $23

If you are required to file an IR3 for any reason (usually because you have received other untaxed income) then our minimum IR3 filing fee is just $99.

If you are required to file an IR3 and this does not result in a refund, we will notify of your obligations and any fees before we take further action.

Business Tax Returns are priced based on work involved.

A success fee of 11% of the refund amount will apply to all refunds assessed by our agency.

Fees are incurred upon completion of an assessment of your tax position. Fees may be payable prior to filing of your IR3 tax return.

If you delink us as your tax agent after we have checked, assessed or received your tax refund you will still be liable to pay our fee for the service we have provided. Fees are incurred on the day that your application is submitted (or in the case of existing clients on the date that our assessment is undertaken).
 

We estimate that the NZ Government collects approx $50 billion in taxes each year. Of course, tax is an essential part of any thriving democracy and it pays for essential services like health, education, roading and social welfare etc. Our aim with these NZ tax refund facts and tips is to ensure that you are not contributing more than you need to!

We’re pretty good at what we do!

FACT: Since we started our IRD registered tax agency in 2008, over 200,000 people have asked us to help them get a well earned tax refund. We aim to get you the biggest possible tax refund based on the information that you provide us with during the application process. The biggest single client refund we have recovered was over $52,000.

Tip: If you want the biggest possible refund, simply complete our application form and ensure you answer all the questions as accurately as possible.

What can you claim as a Business Expense?

General Rules:

If you are purchasing something solely for business purposes, then in most instances you can claim the whole cost of the item. 

If you have an expense that is for mixed use (i.e personal and business) then you can only claim the proportion that is used for business (e.g. if you use your mobile phone for both work and personal calls then you can only claim 50% of the phone bill). 

N.B. It's really important that you retain a copy  of a valid receipt or invoice. You will be required store/hold copies of all expenses that you claim for up to 7 years.

Different expenses have different rules on how much tax relief you are entitled, not every item will be 100% tax dedcutible. Read our FAQ section for more information on claiming work related expenses

Tax Codes

FACT: It is the taxpayer’s responsibility to ensure that their employer is using the correct tax code. When starting a new job, you need to indicate to your employer what your tax code should be by filling in an IR330 form. If your circumstances change during employment, you need to inform your employer and complete another IR330 form.

Tip: If your circumstances change, ie you start a new job or forsee any changes to your income, your tax code may need to be changed. If you begin receiving another source of income, have a significant change in your earnings or your family begins receiving working for family tax credits, check again that your tax code is still correct!

Tip: If you start a 2nd job, it is likely that you will need to use a secondary tax code. If you don’t, you could end up with a big tax bill at the end of the year.

Working For Family Tax Credits

FACT: If you have children, depending on your circumstances, Inland Revenue will provide additional financial support in the form of Working For Family Tax Credits. How much money you will get is dependent on a number of factors including the number and age of your children, your total family income and whether or not you are employed. You can choose to receive these additional payments either weekly/fortnightly or as a lump sum at the end of the NZ tax year.

Tip: At the end of the financial year the IRD will assess the payments you have received. If you have received more than your entitlement they may issue you with a tax bill. To avoid this from happening, always overestimate your family’s income for the year. That way you’ll end up with a bigger refund at the end of the year.

Tip: If you have chosen to receive your WFFTC as a lump sum, you need to let IR know if the care arrangements for your children have changed during the year and they will ensure you get the maximum possible refund. Also, let IR know if you’ve had any more children during the past year as you may be eligible for a Parental Tax Credit. You’ll receive a much bigger refund at the end of the year if you choose the lump sum option.

Schedular Payments

FACT: Schedular payments are typically paid to you when you are working as a contractor rather than an employee. You might receive schedular payments if you have done any promotional work, acting or modelling, temp work of any commission based sales work. Schedular payments are usually taxed at a flat rate for example it’s 20% for commission based sales work. If you have received schedular payments you may be able to claim work related tax deductible expenses.

Tip: If you are receiving schedular payments you may be able to claim for work related expenses that were incurred during the period you were receiving schedular payments. In order to claim, make sure you keep all of your receipts and records. 

Tip: If you have been asked by your employer to use a WT tax code, this will be a good indication that you are receiving schedular payments.

Tip: If you plan on claiming any vehicle related expenses you will need to keep a log book to record your mileage when your vehicle has been used for work related and purposes and personal travel.

Donations

FACT: If you have made a donation of over $5 to a registered New Zealand Charitable Organisation you may be able to claim a third of this back as a donations rebate. You can only claim donations rebates for the past 4 tax years.

Tip: Keep all of your donations receipts and statements and send them into us at the end of the financial year.

Deductible Expenses

FACT: As an employee there are very few tax deductible expenses that you can claim. However, if you have paid any premiums for loss of income insurance or if you have someone to prepare, assess or check your tax return, we will be able to claim a tax credit for these expenses.

Tip: You can check with the insurance provider as to whether a premium is able to be claimed as a tax deductible expense. Remember to keep the statements so that we can include these in your tax return at the end of the financial year.

Tip: Our processing fees are a tax deductible expense and by including these in your assessment it will increase your NZ tax refund.

Other Income

FACT: If you have received any other form of income over $200 other than wages or salary then you must declare this income and we have to include it in your return.

Tip: The good news is that you may be able to claim any expenses incurred in the generation of this income but will need to provide receipts or statements.

Changes to Property Rules

New Zealand citizens and residents

FACT: When buying, selling or transferring New Zealand property, excluding your main home, you now need to provide your:

• IRD number
• taxpayer identification number (TIN) from any overseas countries where you have to pay tax on your worldwide income, if you have one.

Tip: Give this information to  your property lawyer or conveyancer this information. You can also do this by filling in a Land Transfer Tax Statement, which is available on the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website. If you’re transferring property that’s in trust, you need to supply the IRD number for the trust. Trustees’ IRD numbers can’t be accepted.

Everyone else

FACT: When buying, selling or transferring property in New Zealand, you now have to provide your:

New Zealand IRD number and
taxpayer identification number (TIN) from any countries where you have to pay tax on your worldwide income.

Tip: Give this information to your property lawyer or conveyancer this information. You can also do this by filling in a Land Transfer Tax Statement, which is available on the Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) website.