New Zealand: Corporate Tax

The New Zealand government has today announced the final design of its research and development (R&D) tax incentive scheme.

The proposed changes will greatly benefit both larger and smaller businesses that are performing research and development activities in New Zealand.

The Tax Working Group's interim report discusses its review of the structure, fairness and balance of the NZ tax system.

The Limited Partnerships Bill was recently introduced into Parliament and has now been referred to the Commerce Committee. Public submissions close on 5 October.

In June, the government published a discussion document proposing important reforms to the taxation of partnerships and the codification of some existing practices. The proposals have been released in anticipation of the introduction of a limited partnership regime. Rather than devising new laws which will apply exclusively to limited partnerships, the government has taken the initiative to clarify and modernise the tax treatment of partnerships generally.

The New Zealand Government has released its much awaited discussion document entitled Business Tax Review. Readers of the discussion document may feel somewhat deflated – the hope was for a document containing proposals for reform that would be of benefit to businesses across the country, however, the reality is a document that contains very little in terms of details of proposed reforms and certainly contains nothing new.