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Important tax changes
Whether you’re a sole trader, contractor or employer, there are a number of important tax changes you need to know about. Check out how they apply to you.
Pay-as-you-earn provisional tax
From 1 April 2018, your business will have the option to pay provisional tax only when you make a profit. The Accounting Income Method (AIM) also allows you to get refunds throughout the year. Your accounting software calculates how much tax to pay for each filing period – monthly or every second month.
Payday filing
From the start of April businesses can choose to report payroll information every payday instead of monthly. This is voluntary from 1 April 2018, and compulsory from 1 April 2019.
You need to start thinking about how and when you’ll opt in.
Payday filing (external link) – Inland Revenue
Changes to myIR
From 17 April 2018, you’ll see a range of changes when you log in to myIR, designed to make tax simpler for you.
The ‘My GST’ section will change to ‘My Business’, and you’ll be able to:
- file, pay and amend your GST, and file your employer monthly schedules as normal
- register for and delete your account types
- include attachments when you send IR a message
- file, pay and amend fringe benefit tax (FBT), gaming machine duty (GMD), and portfolio investment entity (PIE) returns.
What’s changing for businesses (external link) - Inland Revenue
You’ll need to register for myIR to file and pay fringe benefit tax, portfolio investment entity returns, and gaming machine duty online.
Register for myIR (external link) – Inland Revenue
Global tax evasion
Laws to combat global tax evasion have been in place since 1 July 2017. Financial institutions including banks now have to gather information about tax residency from new and existing account holders.
If you’re a foreign tax resident, you’ll be asked which country you’re a tax resident of, and you’ll have to provide your tax identification number (TIN) details.
What this means for you (external link) – Inland Revenue
Do you have more questions about these tax changes?
Contact Inland Revenue on 0800 377 774.
