Changes announced today by the government: 

• ​Bright-line test increased to 10 years (except for new-builds, which remain at 5 years); more info here
• amending the "main home" exemption which would require tax to be paid on gains
  made for periods the property is not used as the owner’s main home (a "change of use" rule).
• not allowing property owners to claim interest on loans used for residential properties as an expense against their income from those properties. This will start from 1 October 2021, and will be phased in over 4 years for existing properties. There will be an exemption for newly built homes. More info here
• Ring-fencing rules applied to short-stay accommodation e.g Airbnb

​Note that this law is very much "being made up as they go along" so lots of things are unknown, or not even decided on yet.

At present, when you receive rents, you can offset expenses against that rental income to reduce the taxable profit.  A big part of this is interest paid on the rental mortgage/s.

If the expenses are more than the income (a "loss"), the Ring Fencing laws mean the loss can't offset non-rental income, and the loss instead is carried forward to the next year. If you have two or more rentals, the loss from one property can offset the profit from another (depending on how your affairs are structured).

However, under these new laws, the interest deduction will (over 4 years) be reduced, then finally removed.  Rental properties will make more profit, and for almost everyone: there will be a lot of tax to pay.

And of course, if you can't claim the expenses on interest, but still have to pay it... where does the money come from? You have to raise the rent.

Q: How do I work out the tax impact?
A: The calculator below will help you work out the taxable income. The exact tax depends on many things e.g. owned personally or via a trust or LTC? How much wages you receive etc etc.​ Note that this calculator assumes you already own/have "acquired" the investment property/ies.

Q: My rental was a new build. Does it still qualify as a new build under these laws?
A: If it is already built, no.  If construction is not complete: IRD have not said. We have to wait and see as they figure out the details. 

Q: When did I "acquire" my rental property?
A: For tax purposes, a property is generally acquired on the date a binding sale and purchase agreement is entered into (even if some conditions still need to be met). More info here. Note that for the purposes of the changes outlined here, a property acquired on or after 27 March 2021 will be treated as having been acquired before 27 March 2021, if the purchase was the result of an offer the purchaser made on or before 23 March 2021 that cannot be withdrawn before 27 March 2021.
​
Q: My property sale will be taxable due to the Bright-Line Test (BLT).  Can I claim the interest costs in that scenario?
A: No one knows. IRD say "The Government will consult on the detail of these proposals. Consultation will cover an exemption for new builds acquired as a residential investment property, and whether all people who are taxed on the sale of a property (for example under the bright-line tests) should be able to deduct their interest expense at the time of the sale."

Q: How do the "main home" changes work?
A: Actually, it reminds us a bit of how CGT works in Aussie. There is a great explanation at Stuff together with an example.  (Thanks Stuff.co.nz!)

What will the new tax rates in NZ mean for you? Now that the election is decided, there will be a new tax rate to deal with in 2021: 39% on personal income exceeding $180,000 per year.

• This applies to individuals only, e.g. an individual receiving a salary of $200,000 will pay an additional $1,200 tax each year
• It does not apply to combined household income, e.g. if you earn $100,000 each as a couple, you won't pay any more tax 
• All other rates and brackets unchanged
• Any new taxes or further income tax increases ruled out for next term (if present government remains in power)
• Applicable from next year
• No changes are proposed to trust (33%) or company (28%) tax rates

These coming changes emphasize how important it is to have the right business and/or investment structures in place. There will be tax planning opportunities arising out of the difference between the trust tax rate (33%), the company tax rate (28%), the present top personal tax rate (33%) and the new top personal tax rate (39%). 

If you would like a review of your tax position and structure, please complete the contact form below or call us on 099730706 line 2

 1. MORTAGE HOLIDAY: In other news, with the OCR dropping to (and staying at) 0.25%, your bank should be passing on rate cuts for any floating loans, and it is worth looking at existing loans to see if you should break and re-fix or extend the term. Break fees are tax-deductible. Ask the bank or your mortgage advisor to do the calculations for you, or use this tool here. You might also want to look at a mortgage holiday, but just be aware that this will increase the loan,^ but it will buy you some time, so in the big picture, may be worth it. We suggest you only do this if you really need to.

Please see this detailed page with info about mortgage holidays, including links for all the major banks to apply for one. See also our blog post with 4 options for your mortgage to improve cash-flow right now

​2. INTEREST RATES: Check with your bank re break fees on your loans, and look at whether the math adds up to break and renegotiate one or some loans at lower interest rates.

3. RENTS: Rent increases are worth considering, as you can now only increase the rent once a year.

4. PAYMENTS: Of course, cash-flow is king, and in this environment, we suggest asking your suppliers if you can start paying in smaller regular installments, rather than bigger sums. This will help reduce the impact of having less cash coming in. EpsomTax.com group offer interest-free time payment plans to all customers as a matter of course; please contact us to arrange this now.

5. INVESTING: This might also be the time to look out for housing bargains - see this article about timing and buying.  If you can get a good deal on a cash-flow positive rental, that's going to introduce some $ into your portfolio. Heads-up: Banks are deluged with lending applications, so getting mortgage approval is slow

6. OTHER RESOURCES: Xero.com have provided a page with links to educational content. You don't have to be a Xero user to access all of it. Webinars include managing stress, resilience, business continuity and so on. 

​What good news is there for the coming weeks and months, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on the economy? 

Government policy changes include:

• Increasing the small asset depreciation threshold to $5,000 for the period 17/03/20 to 16/03/21.  It will return to $1,000 for 2021/22 onwards
• Giving Inland Revenue the discretion to remit use-of-money interest (UOMI) for customers significantly adversely affected by COVID-19. Affects all tax payments due on or after 14 February 2020. (There are some conditions, see here for more info. For those who don't qualify; tax pooling is still a cost-effective option.)
• Increasing the provisional tax threshold from $2,500 to $5,000 i.e. if your 2019/2020 income tax was under $5,000, you are not a provisional tax payer for 2021 year
• Allowing 2% depreciation on commercial and industrial buildings from 2020/21. 
• Giving wage subsidies or leave payments in some situations.* Find out more HERE. 
• Business Finance Guarantee: loans for businesses with annual revenue up to $80 million can apply for loans up to $500,000, for up to three years. Click here for more info.
• COVID-19 small business cashflow loans:  10k minimum loan, 1 year interest-free, no repayments till year 3, then 3% interest p.a.  There are some fishhooks if you miss a payment, so be aware of your responsibilities if you apply and are accepted. More info here.  Apply via the IRD website (use your myIR account)

* The wage subsidy and leave payments are NOT subject to GST - an Order in Council was passed to treat it as exempt (Section 5(6E)(B)(iii GST Act). The wage subsidy paid to the employer is not taxable; it is excluded income under section CX 47 of the Income Tax Act 2007; it is also therefore not deductible when paid by the employer as part of wages to employees. The payments made to employees are taxable for the employee and subject to PAYE, KiwiSaver deductions, Student loan etc in normal way. The same is true for self-employed persons: it is taxable income. NB: you only need to show a 30% revenue reduction for a single 4-week period to receive the full 12-week lump sum; you should be able to show that you took active steps to mitigate the financial impact of COVID-19, which could include drawing from your cash reserves (as appropriate), activating your business continuity plan, making an insurance claim, proactively engaging with your bank or seeking advice and support from either the Chamber of Commerce, a relevant industry association or the Regional Business Partner programme.

^ How it works is that the principal payments temporarily stop and the interest is added to the mortgage

What business expenses can you deduct in your income tax return? It depends on your business structure, but includes things such as:

• ACC levies
  
• accounting fees
• bank charges
  
• contractor costs
• depreciation (wear and tear)
• entertainment (be careful!)
• home office expenses
• lease or rental costs
• legal fees
• motor vehicle expenses e.g. WOF, registration, repairs, insurance, FBT
• purchases (for business purposes e.g. stock, materials)
• travel e.g. fuel, parking, business travel
• stationery, printing and office costs
• software e.g. Xero, MYOB
• telephone and internet

This is not an exhaustive list, but you get the idea.  It's good to check out the resources here and if you are not sure if something can be claimed, or what percentage can be claimed, ask your accountant or contact us.

In addition to the measures announced (see this article and this article), the government recently announced several new measures (this article was updated 22/05/20:

TAX LOSS CARRY-BACK SCHEME
IRD say "Businesses expecting to make a loss in either the 2019/20 year or the 2020/21 year would be able to estimate the loss and use it to offset profits in the past year. In other words, they could carry the loss back one year. This change means we could refund some or all the tax already paid for the year they were in profit. It means firms could cash out all or some of their losses in 2019/20 or 2020/21. Without this change, firms would have to carry forward any loss to a year when they make a profit."

Points to note:

• The loss carry back rules apply to ALL businesses whether trading individually or through a company.
• You will be able to estimate your 19/20 (FY20) financial year provisional tax to NIL based on estimated 20/21 (FY21)  financial year losses. 
• IRD will update their systems to allow the provisional tax already paid at 28 August and 15 January to be refunded.
• You don't have to wait until FY21 accounts are finalised to access the losses.
• If you think there's going to be a loss for this year, let us know and we will include a reasonable estimate of that in the FY20 calculations.
• You do not need to rush to re-estimate your provisional tax before 7 May. Part of the proposed law change would make it possible for you to re-estimate it after the date of the final instalment. This will give you more time to work out any estimated loss for the 2020/21 income year. 
• Just be aware that if you get it wrong, use of money interest will still apply; we are told a new rate will be announced soon.

Some caveats: 
​If you are unable to pay this tax on time because of the effect of COVID-19 on your business, IRD expect that you will pay this tax as soon as practicable. In such cases our recommendation is that you contact IRD now to let them know you can’t pay the tax on time and negotiate a payment plan.  That will typically be an arrangement to pay the tax over a number of months (or fortnightly or even weekly), and possibly with a deferred payment start date.  As part of that process, although this is not specifically mentioned on the IRD website, a pre-requisite may be that you have applied to your bank for some help under the business finance support package underwritten by Government. The advantage of talking to IRD as soon as possible is that you will most likely qualify for remission of late payment penalties and interest.

If you would like us to talk to IRD on your behalf, please let us know at your convenience.  We will then contact you to discuss the best approach, and whether or not to use this or tax pooling.

* IRD can remit Use of Money Interest (UOMI) and penalties; criteria are:

• tax is due on or after 14 February 2020, and

• the taxpayer’s ability to pay by the due date, either physically or financially, has been significantly adversely affected by COVID-19.

The IRD Commissioner may exercise her discretion to remit the interest if the taxpayer has contacted the Commissioner as soon as practicable to request relief and has paid the outstanding tax as soon as practicable - right up until 25 March 2022.

To prove you've been "significantly affected", you'll likely need to provide at least three months’ banks statements and/or credit card statements, a list of aged creditors and debtors and probably profit and loss statements and/or balance sheet from your business.

Alternatively, you might also be able to apply to

• pay the tax via installment (possibly with a deferred payment start date);

• have IRD partially or fully write-off the debt due to serious hardship, with payment of the remaining tax by installment or a lump sum;

• allow a partial payment, and write-off the balance.

You would need to provide similar proof, as mentioned above.

What are your options for managing your loan or mortgage during the COVID-19 outbreak?​

Depending on when you last fixed your loans, you may be able to get a lower rate now.  Look into what the bank's break fee would be (break fees are deductible on rental properties); chat to your mortgage advisor if the bank isn't playing ball.  Or if they are being greedy at a difficult time.

You might also be able to push the loan term out e.g. from 25 years to 30 years. Yes it will cost you more interest but will improve cash flow now by lowering repayments.

It's not really a "holiday", but rather a "payment deferral." How does it work? While you don't have to make payments during the mortgage holiday, you still get charged interest. What's that going to cost? Well, it could be significant. If your loan is 500k, then it could add about 15k to it (assuming 4% interest p.a.). If you didn't increase your repayments once the holiday is over, you'd pay about 35k more on your loan!

So, think carefully about this. One thing you can do is request the 6-monthly holiday, then if you don't need all six months, end the holiday and renegotiate.

As above, but you keep making payments as you can afford them.  This will give you some relief but reduce the interest on the loan.  Or save money, and then whack it on the loan when you go back to work/cashflow returns to normal. Achieves a similar thing.

Instead of paying principal and interest, look at paying interest-only.  There should be no break-fee for this at the moment.  Just keep in mind that if property values drop, you could end up owing more than the property is worth.  It has happened, but is unlikely.

You may be able to extend the term of your loan, which would lower repayments.  Of course, you will pay more interest in the long-term, but it will help immediate cashflow.

Inland Revenue have released the September 2019 Tax Information Bulletin (TIB), which clarifies this.

For the purposes of this blog post, we are going to assume that the LTC or an individual only holds residential rental property i.e. no commercial, they are not a trader or an associated person or a developer etc, they don't have an Airbnb-style short-stay accommodation house in the picture.

Can losses from an LTC with residential rental property be offset against income from rentals owned by a partnership or in your personal name?
It depends on whether

1. the LTC decides to apply the ring-fencing rules on a portfolio basis or on a property-by-property basis.
2. the shareholders have any other residential rentals with income/loss to offset against this

However, the answer is essentially, "Yes", if:

1. you have decided to use a portfolio basis for the LTC (that is spread the losses and profits out between the various properties owned by the LTC) 
2. you have at least one residential rental property held in your own name or in a standard partnership i.e. we are not commenting on "limited partnerships" here

So the result is, you can have a negatively-geared LTC, and given the above points, the losses can flow through to you as a shareholder. You can then offset this against profits from a personally-owned rental (either solely owned or in a partnership). The situation also works in reverse ie there are profits in the LTC and losses in the personal/partnership rental.

Note that you can't offset any losses against income from other sources e.g. wages, like you used to in the good old days. That is what the concept of "ring-fencing of losses" means. The losses are "ring-fenced" so that they only apply to residential rental property.

Some interesting points

• If an LTC applies the rules on a property-by-property basis, the shareholders have to also take that approach in their returns. If it applies the rules on a portfolio basis, ditto.
• This is not the case for partners in partnerships. If a partnership has filed a partnership return applying the rules on a particular basis, the partners do not necessarily need to apply the rules on that same basis. So a partnership now gives much more flexibility than the LTC in this one respect.

​
Do restructure strategies such as selling your old family home to an LTC still work?
We have previously recommended this, in blog posts such as this one.  The answer is that yes, the rules are unchanged, and this still effectively meets IRD requirements for interest deductibility and remains a good strategy. 

However, just be aware that any losses are ring-fenced, as described above. For more info, the IRD Sept 2019 TIB is below

As always, situations vary, so please contact us for advice on your specific situation. Call 099730706 or email us here

Capital Gains Tax (if it happens): what will be the effects on rental properties? What strategies could be employed to minimise tax effects? Here is a high-level overview:

Everything except your grandma. 

No, not quite. All land except family home, shares, business assets and intangible property.  Seems that cars, boats, jewellry, fine art, collectibles and other household durable items would also be excluded.

At present, it would be at the tax rate of who/whatever owns the asset i.e. if a person, and they are earning $70k/year, then 33c/$.  However, the common view is that this will be watered down to something more like the Australian rate, which is a flat 15c/$. 

That being said, the proposal is to extend the lowest tax threshold of 10.5c/$ from $14k/ year to $20k/year, which is $420/year extra. Break out the party poppers.

Note also, that the proposal includes allowing depreciation on buildings once again. The more things change the more they stay the same!  It would also allow deductions for seismic strengthening, something more likely to help commercial property investors.

It isn't going to be backdated, but seems that businesses will have up to five years to work out what the market value of the assets as at April 2021 was.

You'll pay CGT on your worldwide assets if you* are tax resident in NZ, e.g., sell a rental property in Australia: CGT will be calculated in NZ. One would imagine however, that where there is a Double Tax Agreement (DTA), then that country has primary taxing rights, and NZ would recognise the CGT paid on that asset sale.

We asked MortgageLab to give us their unique perspective as mortgage advisors. You'll enjoy reading some useful insights and tips from Rupert Gough here.

Forsyth Barr make the following observations:

• Lower income groups will likely benefit from the proposed changes, but the effect is likely to be undesirable for middle to upper income groups.
• It seems that there will be more reluctance on the part of business owners to take risks/invest, as the rewards in terms of capital gains will now be taxed. 
• Environmental taxes will be another cost for businesses, and therefore the average Joe who buys from businesses.
• The agricultural sector will likely be particularly hard hit by environmental taxes... which may also drive up the price of food and dairy.

For more insights and advice on your portfolio, go to 
http://www.forsythbarr.co.nz/contact-us/form/register 

* By "you" we mean the entity that owns the asset
+ Note that if you use part of your family home for Airbnb or want to claim home office costs or if the home is bigger than 4500 m2, then CGT would apply. See this link for more info.

​Reference to comments by Mortgage Lab and Forsyth Barr is done with kind permission of each party. This does not constitute an endorsement of Epsomtax.com Limited. All rights belong to their respective owners.

Ring fencing of property losses is here to stay. What will be the impact, and what strategies should you employ? How will it affect you? Will you still get a tax refund? Here is the latest summary from IRD and our discussion below.

So, from 19/20 financial year it is much harder to get losses from your rental onto your personal tax return. And therefore, goodbye tax refund for most; less refund for others. Rents will likely rise as investors can't get a tax refund to the same degree. Some investors will opt to sell. Others will be able to grow their portfolio.

* IRD stated in the draft bill: "... we suggest that the ring-fencing rules generally apply on a portfolio basis, so a person with multiple properties would calculate their overall profit or loss across their whole residential portfolio... we are recommending that taxpayers who wish to elect to apply the rules on a property-by-property basis be able to do so. We... do not consider that ring-fenced losses should generally be fully released on a taxable sale of residential property, meaning the losses (if not exhausted from offsetting the income derived on sale) would be able to be used to offset other income.  However, for those properties which have had the rules applied to them on a property-by-property basis on the taxpayer’s election, we recommend that the losses become fully unfenced if they are taxed upon sale.  This would also be the case where the rules applied on a portfolio basis and all of the properties in a portfolio were sold and taxed.  This would most commonly be the case for land that was taxable under the bright-line test because it was sold within five years of acquisition."

So, what does that mean?

• If you elect to apply the new rules on a property-by-property basis (losses are not offset against income from other property in your portfolio, but rather are confined to that property), then when you sell the property you can use the losses against any taxable profit on that property AND against any other income you have. This is what IRD means by "fully unfenced."
• If you want to use the portfolio approach (loss from one property can be offset against income from another), then when you sell a property and there is tax to pay, you can't use any accumulated losses to reduce this tax
• But, if you use the portfolio approach, and you sell the entire portfolio, and there is taxable income, and you have some accumulated losses, then those losses will be fully unfenced i.e. you can use them to reduce tax payable.

Basically, the TWG wants to extend taxes on capital gains to things other than property. But, they are also looking at reintroducing building depreciation, so it is not all bad for property investors.  

TAX ON CAPITAL INCOME
A capital gains tax (CGT) regime for property and share traders/developers etc already exists in New Zealand, so this is nothing new. The TWG recommendation is to extend this to catch gains on assets that are not already taxed:

• Land and property (other than the family home)
• Intangible property, including goodwill
• All other assets held by a business or for income producing purposes that are not already taxed on sale (such as plant and equipment)
• Shares in companies and other equity interests

The Final Report arrives in February 2019.
​​

Some key points:

• Sir Michael Cullen has indicated that any new CGT would not be retrospective, so this is a huge relief for existing investors. 
  
• Losses arising from the sale of an asset would be carried forward, and subject to ring-fencing e.g. you sell a rental property, and make a loss: this loss can only be used against another rental property.
• No changes to company tax rates or GST.
• Won't be introduced until 2021/22

For more information, please contact either Guy Johnson or Paul O'Driscoll or via the details below.

Content posted by kind permission of Forsyth Barr. This does not represent endorsement of EpsomTax.com Limited or its related companies by Forsyth Barr. All rights and trademarks belong to their owners