Inland Revenue offers tax relief following Auckland flooding

In News4 MinutesBy NZ Trucking magazineFebruary 10, 2023

Inland Revenue is offering a range of tax relief measures following recent severe weather events in the North Island.

Among the measures are the removal of penalties and interest, instalments, and write-offs.

The support is available to self-employed people and businesses.

“Inland Revenue understands people may be unable to file or pay their tax on time because of the recent severe weather events in the north of the North Island,” the agency said.

“During events like these we can offer additional support and we have several ways to help people through this. No need to contact us right now, just when you reasonably can.”

Tax relief advice from Inland Revenue:

Removing penalties and interest

People might be worried about the penalties and interest we charge on late filing or late payment. If people let us know as soon as they reasonably can that they’ve been significantly affected by this weather, we’ll remove any penalties once the tax is paid in a reasonable time. We will also remove interest charged up to 30 April 2023.

Paying in instalments

Once someone has worked out what they can afford to pay, they can set up an arrangement to pay in instalments. This can be set up using myIR or over the phone with us. This will stop late payment penalties from applying.

Financial hardship

We have the discretion to write-off all or some tax owing, penalties and interest charged depending on someone’s situation.

Provisional tax

If they think their annual income is going to drop because of an event, they can choose to estimate provisional tax for the year. This will reduce their provisional tax to pay. They may even get back some of the provisional tax already paid.

If they get Working for Families or Child Support, the changes in income may affect entitlements or obligations.

Income equalisation scheme

This covers people who farm or have an agricultural business on land in New Zealand or have a fishing or forestry business.

They may be able to make a late deposit or an early withdrawal of funds in the scheme outside of the usual timeframes.

People who receive or pay Working for Families or Child Support may need to let us know if their family’s situation has changed because of an emergency event.

Child support

If a family’s income or situation has changed this may affect entitlements or payments.

Working for Families 

As entitlement is based on the yearly family income, the entitlement may change if family income has been affected by the emergency event. People can update your estimated family income through myIR.

Working for Families Tax Credits can be claimed weekly, fortnightly or at the end of the year. It’s important if people have a tax agent to discuss options with them first.

Tailored tax codes

Salary and wage earners may be entitled to a special tax code if they have a loss to carry forward.

Contacting Inland Revenue

If someone needs to talk to us, they can call us on our dedicated phone line 0800 473 566 orsend us a message in myIR with the keyword flood in the subject line. They can also come into one of our front of house offices.