The government is providing an extra $6.65 million a year to the IRD to pursue property investors. Previous funding provided to the IRD has led to the government receiving a 660% return on its investment from this sector.  

The government is expecting to receive an additional amount of $45 million from property sales as a result of the increased funding. This is a large amount of money for property investors to be concerned about.

What do you need to do? Unless you are clearly not liable for tax on your property sale (for example: you have lived in one family home all your life, have no other properties, and have no connection to property or construction related businesses), you should take expert advice on your tax position when you sell a property. This is advisable even if you have been living in the property.

There are common myths about the sale of property, including that you will not be liable for tax if the property was your family home (sometimes tax will apply), that you have to sell a certain number of properties before you pay tax, or that any property you hold longer than 3 years is not taxable on sale.

We can provide expert advice for as little as $150. This is nothing compared to the cost of getting it wrong and failing to pay tax that should have been paid.

Please talk to us in confidence if you have any questions or concerns.

If you are making a loss on property rentals or self employed income, and you are also paid wages or salary, it might be helpful to apply for a special tax code. A special tax code allows you to get tax money back on the self employed losses as you go along, rather than having to wait until after the end of the tax year. Not only will you be better off financially but you can earn interest that would not otherwise have been available to you. A special tax code may also be helpful in situations where you are taxed at a higher rate on salary and wages than you would be on self employed income. We can help you with this application at no or low cost.