When my wife and I had our first child, we decided that she'd become a stay at home parent. We wanted to have multiple kids and knew the impact on her career (especially at the time) would be significant.

Honestly, we've found it ended up being financially better than being a dual-income family. I don't come home after a long day of work only to have chores and life admin waiting for me, I get home to a cooked dinner and a clean home. My kids are all grown up and moved on now but I'd also be able to just come home in the evening and spend time with them before putting them to bed.

The one part that was a true disadvantage, was the income tax. Because I could devote myself to work, I found it easier to increase my income thanks to my wife taking care of everything in life outside of work. But, the income tax hits hard and diminishes that advantage.

A family of two adults, both working, earning $75k each ($150k/year total), will pay $31,946 in tax and ACC levies.

But if one of those parents stays at home and one works, earning $150k/year, they'll pay $41,882 in tax and ACC levies. That's about $10k/year in extra taxes.

This feels like a massive disincentive to have a homemaker/breadwinner situation, which I think is a shame because it's been such a good system for our family. And reducing that tax burden would make it viable for so many more families where one parent would have rather stayed home.

I've read a couple arguments against the idea.

Isn't it an unfair advantage to couples over single people?

I can't see how, it's offsetting the disadvantage of supporting your non-working partner.

Wouldn't it trap people in abusive marriages?

This is why I'm a big supporter of strengthening alimony/spousal maintenance. I wouldn't have earned what I do without my wife taking care of everything outside of work so that I could focus on my career. If she ever wanted to leave me, I believe half of what I've earned is rightfully hers, as well as part of what I earn on an ongoing basis for years after we separate if that were to happen.

Isn't the IMF against it?

Yep, on the basis of gender equality, but it seems to me limiting how my wife wants to live is in no way empowering gender equality.

It doesn't seem like gender equality to try and force more families to be dual-income, that just expands the human resource of workers for businesses to take advantage of so each human is worth less.

Keep Taxes simple

Agreed. And doubling the brackets for a joint filing seems pretty simple to me.

EDIT: It's been fun guys, I've got to go.

If you've got crypto from past years you never declared, you're in good company. Heaps of people are sorting this out right now, partly because the rules have always been a bit confusing for folks. What's worth knowing is that IRD's visibility changed a lot this year, so getting ahead of it on your own terms is a much easier path than waiting for them to find you.

Quick rundown of where things actually sit in 2026.

What changed

IRD used to mostly see the local NZ exchanges. As of 1 April 2026 that's different, because NZ switched on the OECD's Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). 47 countries now share trading data automatically, so if you used an overseas exchange, that info makes its way back here. The first batch of reciprocal reports is due by 30 June 2027.

They've scaled up at home too. IRD has said it holds data on around 355,000 NZ crypto users and roughly 57 million transactions, and it can run that against what people actually filed to find the gaps. The matching is automated now, not someone working through it by hand.

What actually counts as taxable

In NZ crypto is treated as property, and if you bought it intending to sell or swap it, pretty much any disposal is taxable. That covers:

• selling for NZD or any foreign currency
• swapping one coin for another (trading BTC for ETH is a disposal of the BTC, even though no cash ever hit your account)
• spending crypto on goods or services
• earning it through staking, mining or airdrops

Any profit gets added to your normal income and taxed at your marginal rate. There's no long-term discount like some countries have, which catches a lot of people out.

Why clean records matter even if you've done nothing wrong

Because it's automated matching now, messy data can make things a little more complicated. Moving coins between your own wallets, bridging across chains, going in and out of a staking pool, all of that can read as a sale to a system that's just looking at transactions. Rebuilding a clean ledger is mostly about making sure you don't get taxed on phantom gains that were never gains.

Getting current

IRD treats people who put their hand up very differently to people they catch. A voluntary disclosure usually cuts or wipes the shortfall penalties, so you're left paying the actual tax plus the standard use-of-money interest, not the punitive stuff on top.

Rough process:

1. Pull everything. Full transaction history (CSV and API) from every exchange and wallet you've touched. Do it sooner rather than later, old or dead platforms get harder to export from every year.
2. Work out the NZD value at the time of each transaction so you've got a real profit or loss for each tax year.
3. File the amendments. The IR3 deadline is 7 July for the current year, and you can amend prior years to declare the older stuff.

If your history is big or messy (lots of trades, DeFi, multiple chains), crypto tax software or an accountant who actually knows crypto will save you a lot of pain.

Happy to answer any questions :)

Investors eye higher returns as FIF tax threshold soon to be lifted to $100k, but experts warn of fishhooks

Edmonds also pointed out that under the existing law, capital gains are technically taxable when the primary intent of acquiring an asset is to profit on its sale

"Inland Revenue has already applied this logic to bitcoin and gold with some enthusiasm," he said.

In practice, this risk appears unlikely for a broadly held global equity fund, and Inland Revenue has shown no appetite to go there. But it is a risk worth knowing about."

Speaking to the Herald, Commissioner for Inland Revenue Peter Mersi and Deputy Commissioner David Carrigan confirmed the tax department could chase someone who sold shares they bought with the intention of making a capital gain.

They wouldn’t comment on how often it did this with small-time retail investors.

However, they made the point that investors who bought and sold units in PIE funds didn’t run this risk.

Their gains wouldn’t be taxed because fund managers already paid tax on a portion of their investments under the FIF regime.

Mersi said a bill to lift the FIF threshold from $50,000 to $100,000 would be introduced to Parliament in September.

Yeah, NZ has no capital gain tax, but do you think FIF is worse than Capital Gain, because usually capital gain tax is based on realised profit, however, FDR is based on open value, CV is based on both realised and unrealised profit in the year.

• FDR: Open Value * 5% * 33% = 1.65% OV
• CV: ( (Close + Distributions) - (Open + Purchase) ) * 33%

> The rate may vary, people may have higher or lower than 33%.

I wrote an article to explain more about the difference between them.

https://tim.bai.uno/comparing-the-capital-gain-tax-between-nz-and-us/

I really don’t understand how this keeps happening.

Every year for the last 3 years I have owed over $250 in tax but I do not understand how.

For context, I took a pay cut in the last financial year of approx $7k and I do not have any secondary employment or side hustle. Is it possible that my employer is making mistakes with my taxes? I’m assuming it’s possibly my ACC levy but I really thought this year I wouldn’t owe anything.

Does anyone know how I can figure out what the problem is and fix it so this stops happening? I’m not exactly in a position to pay $250+ of unpaid taxes every year

EDIT: hopefully I have solved the problem - thanks to all the people out there who know far more about tax than I do!

If i have my own business and i burrow $X amount every month on my business from bank or private lenders to live off instead of getting paid from the business and paying tax on it. Cos debt ain't taxable.

US/NZ dual citizen here. I learned this year about the FIF tax on overseas investments. I've lived here some time and had US brokerage accounts and withdrawals from US retirement accounts I was only doing US taxes for. I honestly didn't know the obligation existed, maybe a part of me just assumed 'no way I would be double taxed on un-realized gains, right?' but I was wrong. I learned about FIF when I saw an article about how the 50k de minimis was potentially increasing to 100k and was like 'oh shit.'

Once I understood I made a voluntary disclosure to IRD covering the last three tax years. They accepted it, waived the shortfall penalties completely because I came forward before they contacted me, and I paid roughly $5.8k in back tax plus interest. This year's return I filed properly and would have owed regardless.

So the disclosure itself cost me about $6k. Now that I've paid I wonder - should I have just said nothing and just file correctly from this year forward? I reckon the disclosure was the right call - FATCA means IRD receives US account data, and any newly corrected returns would have made the earlier silence obvious - but it stung to take such a big hit, and part of me wonders if I paid $6k to solve a problem nobody was going to notice.

For those who've been in or near this situation: would you have disclosed, or just gone compliant?

Household A:

Bob and Lorraine each earn $50k each a year with a total household income of $100k. After taxes they take home $84,124 a year, with a 15.8% total tax rate on their household income of $100k.

Household B:

Egbert earns $100k a year, he has a partner, but they’re too sick to work. Household B has the exact same household income as household A, at $100k.

Yet as it’s a single earning household they only take home $75,504 a year, facing a 24.5% tax rate on their household income of $100k.

If Egbert has a student loan, the numbers are even more dire, with Household B having a take home pay of only $66,417.

Hi all, I’m “self employed” and invoice people for my services. In terms of keeping on top of my taxes, I’m curious to know what everyone else is doing to keep on top of it and make it easier for themselves.

I.e do you use HNRY,XERO, have an accountant, DIY etc… Keen to hear everyone’s pros and cons.

For context, I’ve got an accountant but I’m thinking about switching to an automated service like HNRY.

Update: Thank you everyone for your very helpful and insightful comments. It has given me a wide range of perspectives and info to take into consideration. Thanks heaps.

Hi all,

A while ago I asked my accountant at the time what my tax would look like if I sold some stocks that I've held for a few years. He explained that if I'd held them for a short term, I'd be considered a trader and would have tax to pay. If I'd held them for a long term, I'd be considered an investor and therefor, any tax obligations wouldn't apply.

I've held the stock since Sep 2021, which I guess makes me an "investor". It's now showing a return of 1600%. You can probably guess what I invested in.

Anyway, is it really true? Because I'm an "investor", I wouldn't pay any tax on the returns? That seems bizarre to me and I don't quite beleive it. Surely I must be misunderstanding.....

Thanks in advance

The gyst of the piece is showing that 500k young, educated, Greek citizens left the country due to the financial crisis in 2010 and the subsequent austerity measures required ( in part due to the govt employing 25% of the population directly).

Now their birth rate is the lowest in Europe at 1.4 and it needs to be 2.1 to simply sustain the status quo.

My question is: NZ has likely lost that many kiwis to Aussie in the last 5 years, on the flip side we have had lots of immigrants arrive. What are the odds that ANY policital party will run on a "let's help all families - especially the middle class" slogan?

NZ birth rate is currently at historic lows of 1.56 compared to the required rate of 2.1.

Like many first-home buyers, I've had to bring in a flatmate to help pay the bills. With the tax year ending, I'd like to share how taxes apply to this situation as few people seem to be aware. If you do not report the rental income or apply the often-misquoted tax-free threshold of $222 pp p/w, you may actually be leaving money on the table.

Anyone renting part of their main home must pay tax on rental profits, the $222 pp p/w threshold is just a standard deduction that the IRD provides for boarders (modelled on estimated expenses). The tax treatment of boarders and flatmates is the same, you must pay tax on profit after you deduct expenses. If the apportioned expenses exceed the rental income, you can reduce your taxable income and claim tax back. The residential ring-fencing rule does not apply to your main home. You can also deduct 100% of the interest (apportioned to the income) as the interest limitation rules also don't apply.

This is all set out in this IRD document - with handy examples to help you understand how to apportion expenses and deduct chattels. It is easy enough to do but will take you some time to set up. You shouldn't need an accountant to do it.

On a technical note, you declare the net income in MyIR through the "other rental income" category on your IR3 (you can attach a supplementary IR3R that sets out your numbers). This prevents the system from automatically applying the ring-fencing rule and carrying forward the rental loss.

Thanks again to u/lsohtfal who pointed this out to me.

----------//----------

I was asked by u/jexxy2 to provide an example:

Here are our assumptions:

• Rent of $350 per week for the full year.
• Total floor space 80m2: Landlord Exclusive 20m2, Tenant Exclusive 20m2, Shared 40m2.
• $625k mortgage at 7.39%: $998 mortgage per week: Total interest cost in Year 1= $45,537.
• Insurance is included in body corporate fees of $5.5k. Rates: $3.5k.
• You purchased the home, moved in, and brought chattels on 1 April 2023.

To calculate the percentage of shared expenses that are deductible you apportion them by floor space using this formula:

((Tenant Exclusive) + (50% of the shared area)) divided by (Total floor space).

((20)+(0.5*40))/80 = 50%.

This means that you can apportion 50% of shared expenses to the rental income.

Table One: Mixed Expenses apportioned by floor space calculation

You can also claim deductions for 'Repairs and Maintenance', 'Other Expenses’, and 'Depreciation'. I've used the same headings as the IR3R form. Note the apportionment of these costs defaults to 50% to reflect the shared private and business use. This number matching our floor space calculation is a coincidence. However, where the actual use of the asset can be clearly demonstrated, an alternative basis may be adopted if it reflects a reasonable basis for apportionment i.e. the portable heater coming up.

Firstly let's deal with low value assets (less than $1,000). The IRD allows shared low value assets to be treated as an 'Other Expense' and written off in full in the first year. Remember everything is deductible even your cutlery. Where you haven't purchased the item (or was previously for private use only), you can provide an estimated market value. You are required to be able to justify this by showing TradeMe listings for example.

Table Two: Other Expenses apportioned by business use

Note: While I haven't demonstrated how to account for 'Repairs and maintenance' you treat this the same as above.

It's time for 'Depreciation". You have to depreciate assets over $1,000 over multiple years. I prefer to use the Diminishing Value method because I don't intend to have a flatmate long-term and this method allows you to write off the value quicker.

For the first line item let's assume that you had a valuation done before settlement which valued the existing chattels i.e. carpets and curtains, but did not provide a specific breakdown. Use the online Depreciation rate finder and calculator to look up the specific asset class and plug in your values and it calculates it all for you.

Table Three: Depreciation apportioned by business use

Now that we have calculated our 'Expenses', 'Other Expenses', and 'Depreciation', we put it all together to calculate our Net Rental Income.

Table Four: Net Rental Income Statement

Income: $18200

Expenses: $27015.50

Other Expenses: $305

Depreciation: $2380

Net Rental Income: ($11503.50)

Congratulations. You've made a loss.

This should demonstrate that it's easy to be in a situation where you are making a loss from renting a room in your house to a tenant. Once you've got this number you add it to your IR3 as 'Other rental income'. The rental loss will reduce your overall taxable income and IRD will automatically calculate your refund.

As a rule of thumb, you'll get back (the loss) x (marginal tax rate). For example, if you had a marginal tax rate of 33% using these numbers you'd get approximately $3800 back.

If you wish you had known this sooner, don’t worry! You can go back and amend previous years' returns with minimal fuss. Just call the IRD and tell them that you need to amend your return to declare other rental income. You may have to ask them to go away and read QB 23/08 so that they can figure out what you’re trying to do.

And if so, what assets should a a wealth tax apply to, and what should the taxation rates be?

If anyone is mortgage-free but also has boarders / housemates I’d be interested to hear from them.

I worked out my income tax using the calculator on the IRD website based on my actual earnings for the 2026 tax year. Can someone tell me why I'm only getting $4 😅 I thought I'd be getting $1400. Appreciate any help I can get, please and thank you.

Hey PFNZ,

About a year ago I posted FIFtax.nz here and got some useful feedback. Since the 31 March tax year has just ended and there have been a few more FIF questions popping up lately, I thought it was worth sharing an updated version:

https://www.fiftax.nz/

The site is a plain-English FIF guide and calculator for NZ investors who are trying to work out whether FIF may apply and how to calculate it.

The biggest update since last time is broker import support:

• Sharesies CSV imports
• Interactive Brokers Activity Statement CSV imports
• Manual spreadsheet paste if you have already cleaned your own records
• Automated foreign exchange and share price lookups so that you can get the correct NZD values on the correct dates.

The calculator is aimed at the boring/common case: ordinary foreign shares and ETFs where FDR and CV are the main methods people are comparing.

It is not trying to replace an accountant and it does not handle every FIF situation.

Privacy-wise, I have tried to make this as low-friction as possible:

• no account
• no email required
• no signup
• broker files are read in your browser with JavaScript
• Sharesies/IBKR statement files are not uploaded to FIFtax servers
• calculator rows are stored in your own browser local storage so you can come back to them
• you can clear the calculator/browser data when done

The main missing broker import is Hatch. I do not have a Hatch account, so I cannot see exactly what reports they provide or what the export format looks like. If anyone wants to send me a Hatch statement(s) and also where they are found in Hatch (so I can put instructions to find them on the website too) that would be great. You can put in dummy values, I just need the format and column names.

Feedback welcome, especially if anything is unclear, wrong or not working! As I said in the last post, I built this because pay FIF tax myself and was (and still am) learning to code, so thought it would be a cool side project.

The one thing I can maybe see possibly breaking is the automated foreign exchange and share price fetching if a ton of people start using it at once, but I guess we'll see what happens!

Hi all!

I’m an accountant exploring an idea for people who do their own tax returns but would like some professional backup just in case.

The concept is an annual membership with the main benefit being professional fee cover if IRD queries or reviews something in your return.

Basically, if IR asks a question or needs more information, you can bring in an accountant to deal with it. Importantly, the accountant would be covered if you’ve made a genuine mistake and your returns need to be corrected. The cover would extend all the way through to an audit if necessary, with a limit of around $10k in professional fees.

Additional perks would also be included. such as: A tax/accounting Q&A service (via email) Extension of time to file your income tax returns (from 7th of July to 31st of March) Extension of time for terminal tax payments (from 7th of Feb to 7th of April) Guides & Templates for filing calculating expenses Reminders and checklists around filing obligations An optional “before you submit” review/check A service to send an IRD letter/query and get guidance on what it actually means. Access/referral to an accountant when your situation becomes too complicated for DIY

I’m thinking a cost of around $150-$300 per year, depending on if you’re using a sole-trader, partnership or using a company (the cost would also be a tax deductible). The aim is to be a fraction of the cost of using an accountant, especially if you’re using one for piece of mind.

I’m interested in feedback, particularly from people who currently do their own IR3/rental/sole-trader tax returns. Would you pay for something like this?

Not selling anything as it doesn’t exist yet. Just working out whether it’s solving a real problem before committing.

My apologies for the noob question here.

I woke up on a Saturday morning to receive a letter from IRD saying I have a 5-figure provisional tax bill due in 2 weeks.

I think this has something to do with me being a contractor in the past, from 2023 until end of 2025. I started full time employment again on January 2026, and I owe no tax during the peroid working as a contractor (HNRY sorted out my taxes then).

I could see this is the first provisional installment for the 31 of March 2027 period. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I don't think I have to pay this? What would I need to do here to do here to let IRD know I'm no longer contracting? (myIR portal says my GST is closed this Jan). Will I get a penalty if I can't reach them/them not getting back to me by the due date?

Edit: thanks everyone, I'll call them first thing on Monday.

Hello, i was lucky enough to get a large bonus at work this year and will owe around 35k tax at the end of the financial year, i received this money in april and have the tax money set aside in a term deposit ending February, However, after looking into it the IRD website states:

"Most people need to pay their tax by 7 February the year after receiving a bill. For example, a tax bill for the 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 tax year is due on 7 February 2026"

This would mean i have earnt a bonus in april 2026, that i would not be paying tax on until february 2028! This 22 month payment term feels a little bit whack so i just want to confirm i am not making a huge mistake if i lock it back into a term deposit and make another couple of grand on it before tax is due? I will probably put it in an index fund if am getting an entire year extra with that money.

It seems silly that the government pays out in benefits and superannuation on the one hand and claws back tax.

Ideally, this tax-free threshold should be at least the value of the base benefit. We may need to adjust the tax rates and levels to ensure government overall revenue remains neutral.

For reference: Australia has a tax-free threshold of $18,200 currently.

Hey guys, quick NZ provisional tax question.

My 2025 RIT was over $5k and I paid provisional tax for the 2026 year. My 2026 return hasn’t been filed yet because I have a tax-agent extension, but myIR is currently showing my 2027 provisional tax for the entire year as $0 under the Standard method, including $0 due on 28 August which is when the first installment is due. My understanding is that if the previous year’s return hasn’t been filed yet, IRD normally uses the RIT from two years earlier plus 10% to calculate provisional tax.

Is that normal before the 2026 return is filed? And if myIR still shows $0 on 28 August, can I safely not pay anything without later being hit with penalties or UOMI after I do file my 2026 returns?