Looking For A New Zealand Tax Agent In A Friendly Time Zone?
We’re based in Australia, we specialise in New Zealand tax, and we help Australian businesses, individuals and their accountants sort out the New Zealand side of things — without having to manage it from across the Tasman.
Whether you are setting up a business in New Zealand, preparing New Zealand tax returns, registering for GST, dealing with Inland Revenue or working out what to do with a New Zealand rental property, we can help.
And where your New Zealand affairs also affect your Australian tax position, we can work with your Australian tax agent so the two sides fit together.
New Zealand Tax. From This Side Of The Tasman.
Australia and New Zealand have plenty in common. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the tax systems work the same way. That is where we come in.
NZ Tax Accountants is an Australian-based specialist New Zealand tax practice. We have been working with New Zealand tax since 1994 and our focus is helping Australian residents and businesses deal with their New Zealand obligations.
We can handle as much or as little as you need. Sometimes that means setting up and looking after an entire New Zealand operation. Sometimes it means preparing one New Zealand return or helping your Australian accountant with one particularly curly New Zealand issue.
We’re a small specialist firm by design. We stick to what we know, and we know New Zealand tax for Australian businesses very well.
Before we start, we will explain what we propose to do and the fee involved.
No surprises are generally a good thing when it comes to both tax and accounting bills.
Thinking About Doing Business In New Zealand?
New Zealand is a relatively easy place to start a business. That is both good news and, occasionally, the problem.
Because it is easy to incorporate a company or start trading, Australian businesses sometimes get the structure up and running before anyone has stopped to ask whether it will actually work the way they expect.
And that is not just a tax question.
Before you set anything up, we look at what you are actually planning to do in New Zealand — who your customers will be, where the work will be done, whether you will have employees or stock there, where the business will be managed and how money will move between Australia and New Zealand.
We also look at the practicalities.
Will the proposed entity be able to obtain the banking facilities the business needs? Who will import the goods? Are there Customs, licensing or regulatory requirements? Will major customers or suppliers expect to deal with a New Zealand entity?
Sometimes those commercial considerations influence the structure just as much as tax. Sometimes a New Zealand company is exactly the right answer. Sometimes your existing Australian company can do the job perfectly well.
And sometimes the structure that looks simplest on paper becomes considerably less attractive once banking, Customs or other practical requirements are taken into account.
Tax is our specialty. Making sure the structure actually works is part of the job.
Do it once. Do it right. It is generally cheaper that way.
Registering A New Zealand Company – With Our Special Secret Sauce
Technically, incorporating a company in New Zealand is pretty easy.
Setting one up properly when the owners, directors and decision-makers are sitting in Australia is where things become more interesting.
Our “secret sauce” isn’t really a secret. It comes from spending more than 30 years working with New Zealand tax and helping Australian businesses deal with what actually happens when they cross the Tasman.
Before we press the proverbial button, we look beyond the incorporation form.
Who will own the company? Who will run it? Where will important decisions be made? Will it employ people in New Zealand? Does it need GST registration? How will the Australian and New Zealand businesses transact with each other?
But we also ask some less obviously “accounting” questions.
Will the proposed structure work with the bank? Who will be the importer of record? Are there Customs requirements or industry licences to consider? Will customers, suppliers or other commercial parties expect to contract with a New Zealand entity?
A structure can be perfectly sensible from a tax perspective and still be a nuisance to operate.
We would rather discover that before the company exists. The incorporation itself is only one part of getting the structure right.
Once the company is established, we can also look after the New Zealand tax registrations, ongoing returns and other New Zealand compliance that follows.
Our New Zealand Business Services
If you are doing business across the Tasman, we can look after the New Zealand side from initial setup through to ongoing compliance.
And when something outside tax affects the structure — banking policy, Customs, importing arrangements or an industry-specific requirement — we take that into account too.
We do not pretend to be the lawyer, banker or licensing authority. But we do want to know about those issues before recommending a structure, and where specialist advice is needed we can identify that early rather than discovering it after the business is committed.
NZ Business Structure Advice
New Zealand company? Australian company? Branch? Something else?
We look at what you are actually planning to do before recommending a structure. The right answer should make commercial sense as well as tax sense.
New Zealand Company Incorporation
We can establish your New Zealand company, deal with the relevant Companies Office requirements and assist with the New Zealand tax registrations needed to get the business up and running properly.
New Zealand Registered Office
If you establish a New Zealand company, it needs the appropriate New Zealand company addresses and statutory records.
For our ongoing clients, we can provide a New Zealand registered office service and help keep the company’s statutory records in order.
New Zealand Company Tax Returns
We prepare New Zealand financial statements and company income tax returns, including for New Zealand companies owned or managed from Australia.
New Zealand GST Registration & Returns
You do not necessarily need a New Zealand company to have a New Zealand GST obligation.
We assist Australian businesses with standard GST registrations and returns as well as the specialist rules that can apply to non-residents, remote services and low-value imported goods.
NZ Tax Audits & Investigations
Sometimes Inland Revenue asks questions. Sometimes quite a few questions.
If Inland Revenue is reviewing a return, GST refund or another New Zealand tax position, we can help work through what they are asking for and prepare an appropriate response.
New Zealand Employees & Payroll Tax
Putting someone on the ground in New Zealand can create employer and PAYE obligations even where the employer remains an Australian company.
We can help make sure the New Zealand tax registrations and reporting are dealt with correctly.
New Zealand Customs & Importing
Importing into New Zealand involves more than getting the GST coding right.
The identity of the importer, Customs registration, permits or licences applying to particular goods and the commercial supply chain can all influence how the New Zealand operation should be structured.
We take those practical considerations into account and can assist with the New Zealand tax and registration aspects of the importing arrangement.
A New Zealand Company Can Still Have Australian Tax Questions
One of the traps in trans-Tasman business is assuming that because a company was incorporated in New Zealand, everything about it must therefore be taxed only in New Zealand.
It isn’t always that simple.
A company incorporated in New Zealand is a New Zealand tax resident under New Zealand law. But if the company is being managed or conducting business from Australia, Australian tax rules may also need to be considered.
That can mean filing obligations in both countries and, in some cases, questions about which country is entitled to tax particular profits.
A Double Tax Agreement Doesn’t Mean “Nothing Can Go Wrong”
Australia and New Zealand have a Double Tax Agreement, which is very useful.
It is not, however, a force field.
The agreement helps determine taxing rights and provides mechanisms for relieving double taxation, but you still need the right structure, the right returns and the right treatment in each country.
Company residency, permanent establishment, foreign tax credits and the treaty rules themselves can all become relevant.
This is one of the advantages of dealing with a New Zealand tax practice based in Australia. We can prepare and manage the New Zealand side and provide your Australian tax agent with the information they need to deal with the Australian side.
We don’t prepare Australian income tax returns, and we don’t need to replace the Australian accountant who already knows your business.
Got A New Zealand Rental Property?
You may have moved to Australia. The house didn’t.
If you are an Australian resident earning rental income from property in New Zealand, there will generally still be New Zealand tax matters to deal with.
And simply using the figures from your Australian tax return is not necessarily the answer. New Zealand has its own rules for matters such as deductible expenditure, interest, depreciation and foreign currency.
A New Zealand rental property owned by an Australian resident can also raise issues that do not commonly arise for a New Zealand-resident landlord.
We can prepare the New Zealand return using the New Zealand rules and provide the relevant information to your Australian accountant for the Australian side.
Need A New Zealand Tax Return Prepared In Australia?
You do not need to find an accountant in New Zealand simply because Inland Revenue wants a New Zealand tax return.
We prepare and file New Zealand returns from Australia and deal directly with Inland Revenue as your New Zealand tax agent.
That can include New Zealand company returns, business returns, GST returns and New Zealand rental property returns.
The difficult part is often not the rule in either country.
It is understanding how the two sets of rules interact.
Being in Australia also means we are awake when you are — a surprisingly useful feature in an accountant.
Are You An Australian Accountant Or Tax Agent?
One of your clients having a New Zealand tax issue does not mean you suddenly need to become an expert in another country’s tax legislation.
Think of us as the New Zealand tax desk you don’t need to build.
We regularly work with Australian accountants and tax agents whose clients have New Zealand companies, businesses, employees, GST registrations, rental properties or other New Zealand interests.
You can keep your Australian client relationship and continue looking after the Australian work. We deal with the New Zealand component and give you the information you need for your side.
Or, if it suits everyone better, we can deal directly with the client on the New Zealand work while keeping you informed.
Either way, we value referral relationships and have no interest in becoming your client’s Australian accountant.
New Zealand and Australian tax can look deceptively similar. That familiarity is useful — until one of the differences matters.
Working With New Zealand Tax Since 1994
NZ Tax Accountants is led by Mike Reddy, a New Zealand Chartered Accountant and New Zealand Registered Tax Agent based in Sydney.
Mike has been working with New Zealand tax since 1994 and has spent many of those years helping Australians deal with the tax problems that appear when business, people or property cross the Tasman.
We’re a team of nine, which is large enough to have the systems and specialist knowledge our clients need, but small enough that your business does not disappear into the machinery.
Most of our clients are owner-managed businesses, so our advice is grounded in the way small businesses actually operate. Tax matters, but so do cash flow, banking, staffing, importing, compliance cost and what happens when the owners eventually want to take the profits home.
That experience is particularly useful because the difficult part is often not knowing a New Zealand tax rule in isolation. It is recognising when something that looks perfectly ordinary in Australia produces a different result in New Zealand — or vice versa.
This is what we specialise in.
Need A Hand With The New Zealand Bit?
If you have a New Zealand tax question, are thinking about doing business there or have discovered that something you have already done has New Zealand consequences, tell us what is happening.
We will let you know whether it is something we can help with and what the sensible next step is.
Call us on 1300 791 600
