Chris-Napier

Like some of the other posts, this tax thing totally confuses me and worries me! I have lived in NZ since April 2007. My daughter and I put everything we had into starting a business here but the recession has hit us hard and we are closing down in 7 days time - lost everything! Thankfully, we both have a house but my daughters house is against a loan we had to take out in 2007 as the business refit so called 'project leader' had over spent and we had no option but to get the loan!! Yes......we were totally ripped off by so many people!!! I have now got my house up for sale so that we can pay the loan off - so my daughters house will be safe - am having a tiny house built on my daughters land (no she hasn't a huge plot of land) but it is our only way out now. I can't move in with her as she has two teenage daughters and there is no room. Once we close the business, we will both be looking for employment - not easy as we have been applying for jobs for months with not even an interview. The only money we have taken from the business all this time is 'drawings' - so as some of you will know - if a business is doing badly the 'drawings' turn into an overdraft - yes that is huge too! My point is......... I get a UK gov pension and private pension paid into my UK bank account each month. This is a total of 594 british pounds per month - so can only transfer it to my NZ bank account every 3 months or so. I am 64yrs old now so know that this will just not be enough to live on here. I have no choice but to carry on working but know full well that my age will be against me. This tax issue - will the IRD tax me here on that money I get from UK? Be grateful if anyone knows!!

chc4me

Hi Chris,
Sorry to hear your state of distress. Hopefully I can provide one small peice of good news - this new proposed tax is unlikely to affect you. It is for those that are still holding UK Pension savings or have transferred lump sums from their pension schemes. However it may depend on when you started receiving the pension payments and any lump sums.

You should note that you do need to declare the income received from your pensions in a tax return each year - this part is not new. You should also check your NZ entitlements from age 65.

Otto The Squid

There are some new complex taxation rules for NZ residents that transferred their UK pensions to Kiwisavers/QROPS. They take a bit of understanding and there are tax amnesties that some will need to be aware of.

I have come across a good technical article from an NZ qualified lawyer that covers this in details.

I recommend anyone that has moved their pensions to NZ from the UK should read this and, if they have any questions, take this up with their normal tax/financial advisers.

Go to this link and then click on "See Article", bottom right.

http://www.trustee.net.nz/id-170/Wha...on-Scheme.html

Pushkinias

Thank you very much for highlighting this - it completely terrifies me and I don't really understand it - but thanks! I must get myself some good financial advice as soon as I'm ready to decide what to do with my NHS pension.

Otto The Squid

Hey, I have worked in financial services for over 20 years and it gave me a headache reading it. I don't deal with NZ pensions, but when I saw the rules it was clear that a lot of people are going to have to look at the potential implications so I thought I would stick it on the NZ forum.

At this stage they are proposals, so there might be some changes.

BEVS

There is already a thread about this

It's HERE

I may merge the two threads depending on how the posts go.

Otto The Squid

I hadn't noticed there was a thread going, if I had I would have put this article onto that thread as the article is a very good analysis of the proposals with the reasons behind them (Kafka references for some of the proposals). In effect there is an element of retrospective taxation here.

BEVS

I will merge so it's altogether.

Cheers mate.

Browner_

Sounds like we might be better of using the pension money to relocate to europe, rather than pissing it down the drain here.

Ex Aucklander

Europe is no rose garden these days.

BEVS

That's true. It's all according to which rose garden is the more thorny to one's own self.

Ex Aucklander

Forgive me as I do not understand nor am I involved in any Qrops scheme but I know from previous posts that many of you are effected. I came across this tit bit on in the Cyprus section of this forum & thought I would share it with you. It would appear that British expats are effected in many countries by these changes which I wonder if the UK government is not trying to replace some of their depleted coffers

http://www.iexpats.com/2012/08/qrops...rom-hmrc-list/

http://www.iexpats.com/2012/05/expat...ons-says-hmrc/

BEVS

There are two changes for us lot down here.

One has happened from the UK HMRC which has and will effect expats in many countries. HMRC are not at all happy with qrops providers elsewhere.

The other is the proposed changes from the NZ IRD & which would be a retrospective tax for many who were informed otherwise . This may well have been driven by the rumblings up in UK HMRC .

Ex Aucklander

No good news when you reach the stage of life where you need stabilty.

Hope things work out, it must be very worrying for many. I think all countries are trying to find ways & means to put more money into their depleted pots vix taxation.


Just look at how we pay GST on EVERYTHING in NZ, next they will find a way to tax the air we breathe. Remember how they wanted to tax the farmers for the cow farts!

NakiMan

There seems to be a lot of confusion here about who this will affect.

Can someone just confirm that the situation, as I understand it is correct :-

The proposed changes affect people who have pension funds in the UK, or transfered to NZ, but are NOT receiving a pension from it yet.

Those who are already receiving an occupational pension from the UK are not affected but should be paying NZ income tax on it (or if you are already paying UK income tax on it, the difference between UK tax and NZ tax).

Hope i'm right