What you need to know?

The Holiday act 2003 was enacted on 17-12-2003, it covers leave and holiday entitlements of an employee in his/her employment. 

In the article Making Tax Simpler “Better Administration of PAYE and GST”, the Government have introduced new proposals to improve the tax systems in New Zealand. Such changes relates to PAYE and GST.

The most significant improvement they want to make is to “use modern digital technology to provide faster, more accurate and convenient interactions with Inland Revenue”. This means that they want to integrate PAYE and GST filling process into accounting software.

Online GST changes and its impact on taxpayers.

According to the Revenue Minister, Todd McClay, the Government is looking at a way to charge GST on cross-border services, intangibles and goods with the focus on collecting GST from overseas suppliers of online products such as e-books, music and videos and GST on low-value imported goods. At present, there is no GST charged on overseas online- service provider and low-value of imported goods.

The purpose of this tax is to create a fairer competition for domestic suppliers and increase revenue for the government. Globalisation means the big world becomes smaller, as you can do business, buy and sell anything with people around the world. The number of New Zealanders buy goods and services from overseas have increased substantially over the last few years. Mr McClay claims that the GST foregone on overseas purchased is around $180 million a year and it is growing at around 10 percent each year. Moreover, the new rule is also fairness. Currently, overseas supplier is benefiting as there is no GST charged on their goods and services, so they can charge a lower price compared with New Zealand suppliers who have to include GST in the sale price.

From 1 October 2015, the Parliament introduced some changes to the property rules called as Bright-line test. The purpose of the test is to reduce the number of foreign speculators on NZ property and thus maintain positive housing prices of big cities in New Zealand. This rule only applies to residential properties bought on or after 1 October 2015. The idea behind the test is that taxpayer has to pay tax on the gain when you selling your property (with some exceptions). By taxing on the gain, it somewhat discourages speculators for housings as the profit is not as good as before.

Residential care subsidy:

What is it?

Residential care subsidy is a programme to help people aged 50 and over who need long-term residential care in a rest home or hospital to afford for the cost of care. You may be able to get the Residential Care subsidy if you: