New legislation

• SL 2025/260: Income Tax (Tax Credit) Order 2025
• SL 2025/271: Income Tax (Fringe Benefit Tax, Interest on Loans) Amendment Regulations (No 3) 2025
• SL 2025/310: Taxation (Use of Money Interest Rates) Amendment Regulations (No 2) 2025 
• SL 2025/259: Tax Administration (Extension of Application Deadline for Research and Development Tax Credits) Order 2025

Interpretation statement

• IS 25/26: The Commissioner’s duty of care and management – section 6A of the Tax Administration Act 1994

Question we've been asked

• QB 25/22: Do the purchase price allocation rules alter the tax book values of Farmland Improvements and listed horticultural plans under subpart DO?

 Case summary

• CS 26/01: Court approves proposal under the Insolvency Act 2006 despite Commissioner’s objection

This case involved a proposal submitted on behalf of Mr Michael Robert Garnham (Mr Garnham) under Subpart 2 of Part 5 of the Act during bankruptcy proceedings commenced by the Commissioner of Inland Revenue (the Commissioner).  If accepted by a majority of Mr Garnham’s creditors, and approved by the High Court, the proposal would bind the Commissioner and Mr Garnham would avoid bankruptcy.

The Commissioner voted against the proposal during the creditors meeting and opposed the provisional trustee’s application for the High Court to approve the proposal.

Despite the Commissioner’s objection, the Court approved the proposal.

Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 38 No 1, February 2026

Gift duty was abolished in New Zealand for dispositions of property made on or after 1 October 2011. Originally introduced in 1885, gift duty protected the estate duty base by discouraging people from transferring of assets prior to death, and generated revenue. When estate duty was repealed in 1992, gift duty was retained to address concerns around income tax avoidance and the targeting of social assistance.

However, a subsequent policy review found that New Zealand’s tax framework had strengthened since 1992. The integrity of arrangements involving gifts was adequately safeguarded by broader tax legislation, including the general anti-avoidance provision in section BG 1 of the Income Tax Act 2007. Given that gift duty no longer generated significant revenue and imposed substantial compliance costs on the private sector, the Government decided to repeal it, effective from 1 October 2011.

This means gifts can be made in New Zealand without any gift duty.

This interpretation statement sets out the Commissioner’s view on his “care and management” duty in s 6A of the Tax Administration Act 1994. In doing so, it clarifies the relationship between      s 6A and the other provisions of the Inland Revenue Acts, including s 6 of the Tax Administration Act 1994, which requires the Commissioner to use best endeavours to protect the integrity of the tax system. All legislative references are to the Tax Administration Act 1994 (the TAA) unless otherwise stated.

Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 38 No 1, February 2026

The Commissioner of Inland Revenue is responsible for protecting the integrity of the tax system. Undertaking prosecution action is one way the Commissioner ensures this obligation is met. Prosecution is an enforcement activity, usually of last resort, used against those who refuse to comply with their tax or social policy obligations and those who manipulate and abuse the system to reduce the tax they are required to pay or to obtain refunds or entitlements they are not eligible for.  The sanction of criminal conviction and punishment assures other New Zealanders, who indirectly bear the burden of others’ non-compliance, that the Commissioner will take enforcement action against those acting in this way.

The Inland Revenue Prosecution Guidelines set out how Inland Revenue will conduct its prosecution activity and are subject to the Solicitor General’s Prosecution Guidelines.

Under subpart DO, a purchaser of farmland with Farmland Improvements and listed horticultural plants who carries on a farming business on the land is allowed an annual amortisation deduction of the diminished values of the improvements and plants. The opening tax book values for the purchaser is the seller‘s tax book values for the improvements and plants at the beginning of the income year of the sale, less any deductions the seller is allowed in that income year for listed horticultural plants that cease to exist or cease to be used to derive assessable income. This Question We’ve Been Asked considers whether the purchase price allocation rules alter this treatment. It concludes that they do not.

Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 38 No 1, February 2026

Determination

• FDR 2025/06: Determination the fair dividend rate method may not be used to calculate FIF income by investors in the Nuveen Global Sustainable Bond Fund – Class X NZD Distributing (H) share class

Binding Rulings

• BR Prd 25/05: Ministry of Education
• BR Prd 25/06: Ministry of Education

Interpretation statements

• IS 25/22: GST – Secondhand goods input tax deduction 
• IS 25/23: GST – Meaning of payment
• IS 25/24: Income tax and GST – industries other than forestry registered in the Emissions Trading Scheme
• IS 25/25: Income tax – business activity

Question we’ve been asked

• QB 25/21: Income tax – Public private partnership projects and business continuity test for losses

Technical decision summaries

• TDS 25/24: The supply of accommodation in a serviced apartment
• TDS 25/25: Restructure and transfer of shares
• TDS 25/26: How does the business continuity test apply to a consolidated group?

This interpretation statement gives guidance on whether and when a taxpayer is carrying on a “business” for income tax purposes.  This is relevant to whether a person has income from a business under s CB 1 and to other provisions in the Income Tax Act 2007 where carrying on a business is a requirement.

Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 37 No 11, December 2025

Subject to the conditions recorded below, any investment by a New Zealand resident investor in the Class X NZD Distributing Hedge share class of the Nuveen Global Sustainable Bond Fund, (ISIN IE000RJY9QW0) a sub-fund of Nuveen Global Investors Fund Public Limited Company (“Nuveen GIF”), to which none of the exemptions in sections EX 29 to 43 of the Income Tax Act 2007 apply, is a type of attributing interest for which the investor may not use the fair dividend rate ("FDR") method to calculate foreign investment fund income for the interest.

Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 37 No 11, December 2025