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 next financial year (19-20), it is much harder to get losses from your rental onto your personal tax return. And therefore, goodbye tax refund for some; 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 state "... 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.
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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

We are sometimes asked: what does "tax-deductible" really mean? Does it mean that I get all my money back?  Well...

No.

When an item is ​tax deductible that means that the cost is able to be deducted from taxable income or the amount of tax to be paid.

All purchases are either 100% tax-deductible, partially tax-deductible or not tax-deductible. A 100% tax deductible item does not mean you get 100% of the money spent back. It means that you can claim 100% of the cost against your taxable income. A 50% tax deductible item e.g. phone, means you can claim half the cost against your income.

So, let's say that you want to put new carpets in your rental property. The cost comes to $4000. This would be 100% tax-deductible. You can claim all of that cost against the rental income the property is earning.

But let's then say that you are at the supermarket, and you forgot your personal credit card. So you pay for your groceries from your rental property account.  This would not be tax-deductible.

If you have further questions, please place a comment here or contact us.

Hard to say. Now the cat is out of the bag, it might be hard to put it back in.  It is, however, worth noting that attempts have been made to control the property market by brute force before, and they ultimately resulted in a change of government. In the early 1980's, the then Prime Minister, Mr Robert Muldoon, introduced a rent and interest rate freeze in an attempt to control property market growth. The result was that no one could get finance, and so no one could sell either.  Eventually, this regime was repealed.

There has been some very strong push-back by influential companies and bodies, which is to be expected. So, we wait and see.  

Meanwhile, let's talk about possible strategies:

1. Bring forward any repairs or maintenance. It is our view that you should attempt to do these during the current financial year. You can then be sure that you can actually claim any losses against your income (if using a LTC, sole trader or partnership to own your rentals).
2. Think about restructuring mortgages as they come up for renewal. Suddenly, paying some principal on that rental mortgage isn't such a bad idea.
3. Start thinking about other types of investments that you can bring into your portfolio, e.g. a mixed-use asset, a commercial building or a share in one, an Airbnb-style house etc

Until where know where things are going to land, these are only ideas to consider at this stage - although point 1 is probably a bit of a no-brainer.

IRD have proposed that any entity which is not "residential land rich" won't be subject to the ring-fencing rules. 

Please explain?! So, an entity is which is not "residential land rich" is any entity wherein 50% of more of its assets are not rental residential property. For example, a LTC which owns a residential rental, and also owns a mixed use asset, and the value of the rental is less than the value of the mixed-use asset.  

So what? So... this means that the ring-fencing rules wouldn't apply to that entity. Therefore, any losses would still flow through to the shareholders' personal tax returns.

You have a mixed-use asset if, during the tax year, it's used for both private use and income-earning use, and it's also unused for 62 days or more.

The rules apply to any:

• property, regardless of cost price or current value, and
• boat or aircraft which had a cost or market value of $50,000 or more when you bought it, and
• additional item or accessory relating to the asset, eg a quad bike stored at a holiday home.

See here for more info.

So in other words, a mixed-use asset means you have to use it a bit yourself, e.g. a holiday home that you mostly rent out, but that you stay in a bit during the year.

There are various rules (outlined in the above link) which limit what you can claim from these kind of assets, and you have to be careful if you think your gross annual income will be more than 60k (GST registration; that's another issue - especially when it comes to sale time), but it bears thinking about.

By no means. We are recommending a wait-and-see approach at this stage. But start thinking ...

You might find our earlier article on this subject useful as well.

IRD is till working out the tax treatment of cryptocurrency. But it has made up its mind on some things. You can read all about it here. The main points so far are:

• For tax purposes, cryptocurrency is property, not currency. This means foreign currency gain or loss provisions do not apply.
• Cryptocurrency received as payment for goods or services is business income, which is taxable. This is seen as a barter transaction and you’ll need to calculate the value of the cryptocurrency in NZD at the time it’s received.
• Cryptocurrency is considered property for income tax purposes. So that means that the proceeds you make from selling it are very probably taxable.

NZ Police in association with City of London Police have just released a warning. See below for the PDF.

Apparently, fraudulent websites alleging to offer cryptocurrency investments are dishonestly using the image of Martin Lewis, the founder and editor for moneysavingexpert.com, as an endorsement for their companies. However, Martin doesn't do adverts.  See his blog post for more info here. These sites are also falsely stating that Dragons Den back their schemes.

Our advice:

1. Don't assume it is authentic just because it looks good
2. Don't rush into any investment, including cryptocurrency
3. Consult a financial advisor

More info is available at NetSafe, especially re scams. And, just for the record, we don't claim any endorsement by Martin Lewis, his website, NZ Police, City of London Police or NetSafe. Any copyrights belong to their legal owners. We are merely making you aware of what is going on out there.  Keep safe!

Shock! Horror! IRD have released a proposal to ring-fence rental property losses. What does that mean for you?

At present if you own a rental property (sole trader, partnership, LTC) and it makes a loss, then you can offset that loss against your personal income or the income of the shareholder/s (in the case of an LTC). This means you pay less tax or get a tax refund. In IRD speak, that is

"Currently investors (particularly highly-geared investors) have part of the cost of servicing their mortgages subsidised by the reduced tax on their other income sources."
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Thousands and thousands of Mums and Dads across New Zealand have become landlords in this way, and the tax refunds help pay for the mortgage.

From 2019-20 onwards (or possibly phased in), losses won't be passed on to the owners, so no more personal tax refunds. Instead, ring-fenced residential rental* or other losses from one year could be offset against:

• residential rental income from future years (from any property); and
• taxable income on the sale of any residential land.

IRD make this comment:
It is suggested that the loss ring-fencing rules should apply on a portfolio basis. That would mean that investors would be able to offset losses from one rental property against rental income from other properties – calculating their overall profit or loss across their portfolio.

So, our initial thoughts are that investors with negatively-geared property need to look at

• paying down debt to make the property cashflow neutral
• buying cash-flow positive property to get income into the portfolio to offset the losses
• re-budgeting to account for the fact that there may not be any tax refunds
• consider restructuring - although you need to be careful that this is not done purely for tax purposes, as this could be considered tax avoidance by IRD.

Goto this page

​Officials invite submissions on the suggested changes and points raised in this issues paper. Send your submission to policy.webmaster@ird.govt.nz with “Ring-fencing rental losses” in the subject line.

Ring-fencing rental losses
C/- Deputy Commissioner, Policy and Strategy
Inland Revenue Department
PO Box 2198
Wellington 6140

The closing date for submissions is 11 May 2018, so if you want to say something, you'd best be quick about it!

Check out Part 2 here

* If your house is a Mixed Use Asset, ie you use it as a holiday home that you rent out to others, then the rules wouldn't apply to you. They also don't apply to your "main home" ie where you live, or if you are buying and selling houses for profit e.g. a trader.

Currently, the tax thresholds are as follows:

As you may recall, these were to be changed. However, due to a change of government, there will be no change to these tax rates. There will no doubt be lots of other changes coming; we will post as soon as information is finalised.  At the moment it is all hot air and speculation...

The government announced in today's Budget that it would be increasing the EQC rate insured homeowners pay from 15c per $100 of cover capped at $207 a year to 20c per $100 to a maximum of $276 per year.

The increase could result in people paying up to $69 more per year on their insurance. This comes at a time when the government was already planning a 40 per cent increase in the fire service levy.
​
The fire service levy increase comes in from July 1 while the EQC levy increase will come in on November 1.

For more info please see this article

Is selling your home taxable?, Or in other words, do you have to pay tax when selling your home?

Buying and selling your private or family home typically is not taxable. However some are looking to purchase a family home with the intention of reselling it in time, and a few earn their income this way – buying and selling.

If you have established a pattern of purchasing and then selling your “family home,” this could be considered as property speculation or dealing for tax purposes.

So, how do you know whether you are considered a property speculator, dealer or investor?  Click here for the IRD definition

Things to consider in answering the above question:

• what was your intention when you bought the property?
• what pattern have you established in terms of property transactions?
• are you (and if so, how) associated with a developer, builder or property dealer?
• will the Bright-line Test* apply?
• will you be affected by rezoning?

​How do you know if selling your home will be taxable?  Think carefully about the answers to these five questions.

“Ok, so I just have to hold onto a property for a really long time and then I’m not considered a dealer?”  No.  The amount of time you hold the property is immaterial.  It’s your intention at the time of acquisition.If you bought a property with the intention of reselling it, then any capital gain that you make on the sale taxable.

“Right-o.  So, is there some sort of level?  That is, my first couple of properties are tax-free and then I pay tax after that?”   Ahhh… no.  Again, it’s intention, patterns and associations – not numbers of properties sold.

“Great.  It looks like I will have to pay tax then.  How do I figure that out?”  The IRD have a great resource here – or you can contact us.

* For a definition/more info please see this article at the IRD Tax Policy website

From the 2018 income year (that is, 1 April 2017 onwards), the safe harbour threshold has been increased! Hooray, I hear you say. It's gone from $50,000 to $60,000. It has also been extended to non-individual taxpayers e.g. companies. 

What does this mean? Use of Money Interest (UOMI) will only be payable from terminal tax date* for natural persons and non-individuals where their residual income tax liability is less than $60,000 and the following requirements have been met:
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The taxpayer must have:

• Paid all provisional tax instalments under the standard# methods on time,
• Not estimated their Residual Income Tax (RIT), and
• Not used the GST ratio method.

There are a couple of other points: The requirement that they must not have held an RWT exemption certificate at any time during the year has been removed. Oh, and there is an anti-avoidance rule as well, so that you can't manipulate your incomes to fall within the safe harbour provisions.

* Terminal tax date is either 7th February if you do not have an accountant or tax agent OR 7th April if you have an accountant or tax agent who has an extension of time on your behalf.... more info
# Standard method is last years residual income tax + 5%, OR your residual income from two years ago + 10% (only if you haven't filed last year's return yet)... more info

You might have noticed that things are taking a little longer to process, both at EpsomTax.com and at IRD. We have entered the middle of the year slow-down.  What is it? Well, it doesn't mean we are putting our feet up. Far from it! Rather, it is when the bulk of clients have their work with us (no matter how we try to spread things out), so there is an inevitable hump to get through.

Please be assured we are working as fast as possible, and yes, we have taken on extra staff to cope with it!  We apologise for the delay!

​If you would like to discuss, or have concerns, please contact us