Tax relief

Inland Revenue responded in several ways to ease the recovery for taxpayers:

• It introduced relief provisions for ‘depreciation recovery income’ from insurance and compensation payments resulting from the earthquakes. The earthquake relief provisions mean that people affected can delay including any ‘excess’ as income in their tax returns when insurance or compensation payments are more than the book value of the affected asset(s).
• An Order in Council was approved that allowed for the remission of ‘use-of-money’ interest on late payments.
• Customers who missed filing returns or making payments were also advised that they could apply to IRD to seek relief from penalties.
• Community Compliance officers were also on the ground to talk to taxpayers either one on one, or in small groups, in each of the North Canterbury councils and in Wellington.

Visit the IRD website