This paper offers an historical, economic, constitutional, and contextual survey of the New Zealand tax system. The focus is on income tax, but the paper also briefly describes the “goods services tax”, the name given to the New Zealand value added tax. The focus is on domestic taxation, but...

This paper considers New Zealand's hybrid tax credit system consisting principally of a credit system combined with exemption features in respect of certain classes of income, both of which aim to provide relief to minimise the impact of foreign income being taxed in a foreign jurisdiction as...

From a tax policy point of view, one of the demerits of a foreign investment fund regime is that it causes the law to treat forms of investment that are similar in economic purpose and effect as if they were different. In particular, it I likely to distinguish between direct investments by...

The Taxation (Beneficiary Income of Minors, Service-Related Payments and Remedial Matters) Act 2001 taxes the income of most beneficiaries of trusts who are minors at 33 per cent. This measure responded to parents strategically diverting income to their children via trusts, with a view to that...

Sections HH 1 and HH 8 of the New Zealand Income Tax Act 1976 contain a special regime for the taxation of trusts. Income that is distributed by the trustee is taxed in the hands of the beneficiary, and income that is accumulated is taxed to the trustee. The mere fact of the trustee being...

Controlled foreign company regimes are sets of anti-avoidance rules. These regimes assist in preventing companies from diverting income through tax havens. Such regimes require the parent company to report the income of its subsidiary for New Zealand tax purposes as if it were its own. Complying...

Much of the world's tax treaty policy is driven by approaches that suit, or that have suited, the USA. Changes to the relevant economic positions of the USA and the rest of the world have seen an altering of the way in which treaties are negotiated. At the time of writing the effect of these...

Major tax reforms in the 1980s saw movement towards to tax systems that are relatively pure, in that they are not given additional tasks promoting economic or social policies. The USA under the Clinton Administration began to show signs of reversing some of the changes of the 1980s. Tax policy...

Legislation regulating tax preparers has seen little attention in New Zealand, but this is not the case in Australia and the USA. In Australia is obligatory for those who professionally prepare tax returns to be registered as tax agents. In both countries – the USA and Australia – tax...

Tax simplification is a subject that causes great debate throughout the OECD. The general basis for simplification programmes is to identify factors that cause taxation to be complex, followed by an attempt to minimise the effects of these factors. Through the 1980s New Zealand engaged in one of...