Claim your tax back

How do you fancy getting some money back from the taxman? A lot of people in NZ can claim tax back. If you're still at school or left last year, and you worked, you can claim the tax credit for children. This will be the lower of $269.10 or all the tax you have paid (except tax paid on interest and dividends). Regardless of your age, if you earned less than $9,880 for the year, you could also be eligible for a tax credit for any weeks you worked 20 hours or more. Unfortunately you can't claim both of these tax credits, but if you're eligble for both you get to choose the one that pays the most! Even if you're not eligible for either of these tax credits, if you didn't work for a full year you still maybe eligible for a tax refund. Because of the way the PAYE system works you may have been overcharged.

To find out if you're eligible for a tax refund simply go to the IRD site and search for 'personal tax summary calculation'. This worksheet will ask you to fill in details of the amounts you have earned during the year. If you don't know these figures for sure you can get on to the IRD and request a summary of earnings. This is simply a breakdown of the amount you have earned in the year. You then fill these numbers in the correct boxes and calculate the result. Don't worry if it comes up that you owe tax you don't have to pay this, the IRD don't see your calculations.

If this seems/proves to be too complicated or you're just a bit worried to do it yourself, there are many companies who will help you out, for a fee of course. If you do use one of these services, you appoint them as your tax agent. This means that any tax information the IRD send to you thereafter will go to your agent, the company. Make sure that you revoke the permission to act on your behalf (unless you want that arrangement to continue) when you've claimed your tax back as some agencies may not tell you and may not pass on any information. Ignorance of this is no defence in court if you're had up for tax evasion.

Last Updated on Tuesday, 19 July 2011 21:13 Sunday, 08 May 2011 19:58