New Zealand's Revenue Minister, Michael Cullen has announced a new package of reforms aimed at reducing the tax compliance costs of the nation's small and medium-sized businesses.
Addressing the International Fiscal Association conference in Christchurch on Friday, Dr Cullen announced that the new measures will be supplemental to a major tax package to assist business and economic growth due to be announced in the May budget.
"The changes are part of the government's drive to simplify tax and reduce business compliance costs," Dr Cullen stated.
These changes will include: a subsidy for small businesses with up to five employees allowing them to hire a payroll agent to deal with PAYE tax obligations; aligning GST and provisional tax payment dates to reduce the number of times businesses have to deal with the Inland Revenue (IRD); and giving firms the option of basing their provisional tax payments on their GST turnover to help match tax costs with cash flow.
In addition, there will be changes made to fringe benefit tax which will include: exemption of private use of work tools such as cell phones and laptops if they are primarily for business use and cost less than $5,000; an increase in the minimum value thresholds for unclassified fringe benefits, such as subsidised goods, from $75 to $200 per employee and from $1,800 to $15,000 across all employees; and the lowering of the valuation rate on motor vehicle fringe benefits from 24% to 20% of the vehicle's cost.
Dr Cullen also announced changes to the tax treatment of foreign superannuation schemes in a bid to remove barriers blocking a more open trans-Tasman labour market.
However, New Zealand-based foreign trusts will be required to provide more information to IRD under the new measures.
The full text of Dr Cullen's speech to the International Fiscal Association conference can be found in the Tax News Resources section.
Network Tweets
Network BlogsContent
provided by
|
Archive | Resources | Partners | Site Map | Links | Newsletter Archive | Contact | RSS Feeds | About | Syndication | Advertising & Marketing | Recruitment | Terms & Conditions | Privacy & Cookies
Copyright © 2012 - All Rights Reserved - Tax-News.com
IMPORTANT NOTICE: Tax-News.com has taken reasonable care in sourcing and presenting the information contained on this site, but accepts no responsibility for any financial or other loss or damage that may result from its use. In particular, users of the site are advised to take appropriate professional advice before committing themselves to involvement in offshore jurisdictions, offshore trusts or offshore investments.
Write a comment