Tax on international income

[apartmental]

Hi people, I've been reading a lot in interest.co.nz lately about IRD contacting New Zealanders who have bank accounts or investments overseas and haven't declared any international income on their NZ tax returns.

This may be a very silly question, but I have a tiny shareholding in the UK, left over from when I lived there for a few years, long ago (I'm a Kiwi BTW). I haven't sold the shares, mainly because it's a hassle and expense to do so from NZ. The shares earn less than NZ$200 in dividends each year, which are paid into my old UK bank account.

Does this piddly income have to be declared and the appropriate paperwork done? Someone recently told me that IRD are only interested if you're earning $50K or more from overseas investments, but I'm not sure if that's true.

Thanks in advance.

[eri]

clearly no one here can really tell you what the ever changing interests of the ird are and are going to be

imho they wouldn't be interested in <$200pa

however, there seems to be a lot of data matching going on with names and birthday's and if you haven't told them

some computer may flag it and possibly trigger interest in you by the ird and or the banks may lock out your accounts until this flag is explained and removed

so many would say it would be smart to front foot the problems and put this income on your ir3

yes, it might be a hassle and it may be worth selling the stocks

but even doing this doesn't necessarily remove the flag from the old data they are working with

this kind of data matching is only going to get more intrusive as the battles for pensions get fought

[apartmental]

Good advice thanks Eri. My (rather conservative) accountant certainly wants this income declared. The tax payable is insignificant, the paperwork will cost more. Will see if I can get a NZ broker to sell the shares for me and save future hassles (I'm sure the brokerage won't be pretty).

[Anthonyacat]

Good advice thanks Eri. My (rather conservative) accountant certainly wants this income declared. The tax payable is insignificant, the paperwork will cost more. Will see if I can get a NZ broker to sell the shares for me and save future hassles (I'm sure the brokerage won't be pretty).

As a Chartered Accountant, I'd certainly be telling you to declare it. But if you don't, the tax on $200pa will be $20-60pa, it's totally insignificant, and if it's going to cost you more in paperwork, either ignore it or get rid of them. But! There's no reason it should cost you more in paperwork? You keep track of how much you're earning (should be very easy) and convert this from GBP to NZD, then tell your accountant. Should be zero extra cost for that. Pay your tiny taxes, and all will be good

[Beano]

Assuming you have been a non resident of NZ for over ten years (UK you said) and not been in NZ for more than 4 yrs then no you do not have to declare the income.

https://www.classic.ird.govt.nz/international/comingleaving/coming/entitlements/coming-to-nz-entitlements.html

[Anthonyacat]

Think you may have misread, Beano. I read it as them having been in the UK a long time ago, now living in NZ.