We are here in sunny NZ and have just had a call from our shippers here in Auckland, and they seem to think we need to pay tax on our goods!!! arriving on Monday We were under the impression that on the Work to Residency visa we have come on we didnt have to pay. Help Advice please.
xx

Hi Chris, good to see you arrived ok!

I don't have a lot of time at the moment but I looked up your question as I knew Shelloid had asked similar recently and this is the thread
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...light=shelloid
It has some links to sites that should help and it looks like you shouldn't have to pay the tax
Hope you're enjoying your first few days at Marias!
Sue x

We did not had to pay, was originally on the work to residency but that was a few years ago.

However things may have changed, a friend of mine had to pay tax on all of his goods and it came to about $1000. Maybe I was lucky.

Best to clear it up with them. I do recall that they wanted to see my Visa, passport etc as proof that I was moving here and was therefore exempt to the tax.

Thanks Sue, nice to know I can still rely on you expert-es! Decided to contact our immigration officer who did indeed confirm that it is a SMC work visa which is exempt from the import tax. Who said this emigration lark was going to be easy? Really great to be back in touch sorry haven't been about, been enjoying myself, as I knew when we arrived here it was back to the grindstone! Having great time here at Maria's,looking at rental areas tomorrow,we. like the look of Warkworth and Snells beach.

thanks kiwbox too for your reply! Again nice to know help is on hand from the helpful ones here on expats.x

yep I was just coming on here to update my previous thread as well.

We had the whole problem of thinking we'd have to pay GST because we had a permit that was valid for less than 12 months. In the end we DIDN'T pay any GST as we sent off loads of info to our shipping company to prove that we were on our way to PR.

We sent in copies of our visas (obviously), a copy of the letter we received from NZIS stating the terms of our visa and that wee could convert to PR once we had fulfilled certain criteria, a copy of my contract from work and a copy of my Annual Practising Certificate from the Pharmacy Council in NZ (these were basically most of the things required for us to convert to PR, we just needed me to have been working full time for 3 months before converting).

Our shipping company also contacted immigration apparently to confirm stuff.

Seems to be a problem with the WTR in the back of the SMC.....hardly anyone has heard of it and so are very wary of it. I also think it would help if NZIS didn't call it the same thing as one of their other visas, but that's a different topic!

I had to pay over $2000 for tax on my car because i was on a work to residence visa instead of a permanent residence visa life is a bugger sometimes but thems the rules its a shame but didnt have to pay any tax on anything else

Bit late to the party Alchris. Sorry mate.
As the others have stated, you are on a Work To Residence visa. That's the same as a work visa and you should not therefore pay import tax on your worldly possessions as you hold a valid visa.

Here is a useful LINKY

Errrm. Nope Them is not the rules. I just quoted the rules in the above post.
however, it depends on your circumstances.

If you fit the criteria, challenge this with customs for a refund . There is an avenue for you to do this.

Thanks Bevs, we told them this but they have yet to confirm we wont have to pay!! Seems we may have fallen into paying the 'service charge'' you mention many years ago. They have charged us $500 for quaratine fees, and being a bit slow, after paying it realised this could well be the MAF charges which we had believed we were paying directly. Why are things so hard???? Not much hair left now.