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Year-End Tax Planning Guide — Strategies and Deadlines in NZ

the year-end tax planning in New Zealand covering the 31 March end-of-year deadlines, the income deferral and the expense acceleration strategies, the provisional tax top-ups, the KiwiSaver contribution planning, and the investment portfolio rebalancing.

Income and Expense Timing Strategies

The New Zealand tax year ends on the 31 March each year. The year-end planning strategies include: (a) the income deferral — deferring the invoice issuance to the next tax year if the cash flow permits, (b) the expense acceleration — prepaying the expenses before the 31 March (the insurance, the subscriptions, the interest), (c) the asset purchases — purchasing the business assets before the year-end to claim the depreciation or the immediate deduction, and (d) the bad debt write-offs — reviewing the receivables and writing off the bad debts before the year-end. The self-employed taxpayers should review the provisional tax estimates and adjust the payments if the income has changed significantly. See our Provisional Tax Guide → for the calculation methods.

Investment and Retirement Planning

The year-end is the optimal time to: (a) review the KiwiSaver contributions — the member tax credits are available for the contributions up to $1,042.86 per year (the maximum $521 credit from the Government), (b) rebalance the PIE fund investments to manage the tax liability at the 28% cap, (c) review the FIF portfolio — the $50,000 cost threshold applies to the overseas shares, and the FIF method may be optimised, and (d) consider the donation tax credits — the donations made before the 31 March qualify for the 33.33% tax credit. See our Tax Return Guide → for the filing deadlines.