It’s results season for many of New Zealand’s biggest corporates, which find themselves awkwardly announcing large profits, with the wage subsidy helping them get there. We’re now approaching six months since the dread of late March, when over the course of a few fearsome days New Zealand closed its borders, locked its population inside and … Read more
Expected to be the most significant in a generation, Thursday’s budget will reveal how the government will offset the monstrous cost of Covid-19. Terry Baucher explores the likelihood of tax changes. As usual, the finance minister is not lacking for advice in the run-up to this week’s budget. It ought to be something of a … Read more
Changes to GST for overseas retailers came into effect on December 1. What do these changes mean for consumers, local businesses, and the online shopping market in New Zealand? This Christmas thousands of smart Kiwi consumers have done a lot of their gift shopping online. After all, it seems a waste of time to join … Read more
Budget 2019: Unless we can find some way of taxing wealth as well as incomes, New Zealand is headed for an intergenerational economic meltdown, writes Grant Thornton tax partner Murray Brewer. It’s hard to get your head around how much money the government has. The slew of spending announcements in the run-up to Budget Day makes … Read more
Budget 2019: Should the collection of taxes be the point at which we talk about fairness, or should fairness be part of a completely different conversation, asks Grant Thornton tax partner Oksana Simonoff. It’s counter-intuitive, but when we talk about tax fairness we aren’t really talking about tax. We’re really talking about politics, economics and … Read more
SkyCity’s moves to set up an offshore online gambling subsidiary throw up a huge range of questions about just how tax should work in the digital age, writes tax consultant Terry Baucher. The news that SkyCity is voluntarily paying perhaps as much as $40 million in “tax” sounds like someone actually took seriously the remark … Read more
An essay by Sarah Forster from Booksellers New Zealand about the threat that the Amazon-owned Book Depository poses to bookstores – and, ultimately, readers. Every time I tell somebody that Amazon owns Book Depository, they’re surprised, astonished, aghast. So let’s put that on the record. Amazon purchased Book Depository in 2011. And they’re here to … Read more
Tax law makes it pretty clear: services being provided in New Zealand attract goods and services tax. So why can’t the US electric scooter ride share phenomenon clarify whether it’s collecting it? Update 22 November: For Lime’s response to this story, see the comments at the the bottom of the page. As Hayden Donnell wrote … Read more
Budget 2018: If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a tax, says Grant Thornton’s Dan Lowe. Budget day is fast approaching and the predictions are coming thick and fast. Many will be watching with keen interest, not just because it’ll be Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s first budget since being … Read more
In today’s Cheat Sheet, we take a look at the so-called ‘Amazon tax’ and what it means for local retailers and consumers. So what’s the government taxing now? The government has announced that low-value goods bought online from overseas will now be subject to a goods and services tax (GST) of 15%. Low-value goods include … Read more
Last week Labour announced that all online purchases would – finally – incur GST. Then, almost immediately, they backed the hell away. Duncan Greive explains why they were right first time. Last week, Stuart Nash finally told New Zealand retailers what they’ve been wanting to hear for years: that this government would “absolutely” introduce GST … Read more
We continue serialising an epic essay from the New Zealand Initiative’s Eric Crampton, exploring what life is like in and out of New Zealand. Today: chapters three and four, covering tax and airport security. Read chapters one and two here. Chapter 3: A sense of proportion: The tax system “He’s spending a year dead for tax … Read more