Inland Revenue knows many businesses have been affected by flood and other weather-related damage in the past couple of weeks, and that you have more important things to deal with than your tax. So if you are affected, you do not need to contact us right now. But if you let us know when you reasonably can there are ways we can help.
Removing penalties and interest
You might be worried about the penalties and interest we charge if you’re late filing or paying your tax. If you let us know as soon as you reasonably can that you’ve been significantly affected by this weather, we’ll remove any penalties once you’ve paid the tax in a reasonable time. We will also remove interest charged up to 30 April 2023. You can either ask your tax agent to tell us, or send us a message in myIR.
Apply to have a penalty waived (ird.govt.nz)
Paying in instalments
Once you know what you can afford to pay, you can set up an arrangement to pay in instalments. You can set this up in your myIR account or over the phone with us. This will stop late payment penalties from being added.
Apply for an instalment arrangement (ird.govt.nz)
Financial hardship
If you’re in serious financial difficulty, we can write-off all or some of your tax debt depending on your situation.
Apply for financial relief - individuals in New Zealand (ird.govt.nz)
Provisional tax
If you think your annual income is going to drop, you can change your estimate for the year, which will reduce the provisional tax you have to pay. You may even get back some of the provisional tax you’ve paid so far.
Contacting us
We are prioritising contacts from those affected by the floods. If you need to talk to us, here are your options:
· Send us a message in myIR using the word ‘flood’ in the subject line
· Call us on our dedicated phoneline 0800 473 566
· Come in to one of our front of house offices Our customer sites (ird.govt.nz).
If you call or send a message, include the word flood so we can prioritise your contacts.
You can also get in contact with a tax agent for professional advice.
You can find information about other types of support available for businesses at https://www.business.govt.nz/risks-and-operations/extreme-weather-information-for-business/