IRD are paying close attention to the residency status of individuals who have left New Zealand but still have a dwelling here which they could live in. A recent court case saw IRD win and were able to determine a client was a tax resident of NZ even though the taxpayer had been out of NZ for several years! This means that the taxpayer had to declare their worldwide income and tax paid in their NZ income tax returns.
Ultimately the Inland Revenue are the only ones that can determine your tax residency status – so our advice is to complete and send to IRD an IR886 Residency Questionnaire form if you haven’t done so already.
Once Inland Revenue reply to you regarding your status can you please update us so that we can accurately prepare your returns.
