Provisional Tax is not a separate tax but a way of paying your
income tax as the income is received through the year. You pay
instalments of income tax during the year, based on what you
expect your tax bill to be. The amount of provisional tax you pay
is then deducted from your tax bill at the end of the year.
If your residual income tax is $2,500 or more you will have
to pay provisional tax for the following year. Residual income tax
is basically the tax to pay after subtracting any rebates you are
eligible for and any tax credits (excluding provisional tax).
Residual income tax is clearly labelled in the tax calculation in
your tax return.
There are three options for working out your provisional tax:
standard, estimation, and ratio.
Standard option
The IRD automatically charges provisional tax using the
standard option unless you choose the estimation or ratio options.
Under this option:
- Your provisional tax payable is your previous year's residual
income tax plus 5%
- Changes in tax rates may have an effect on the calculation
of your provisional tax
Estimation option
The other way to work out your provisional tax is to estimate
what your residual income tax will be. When working out the tax,
keep the following points in mind:
- To get the right tax rate -
- Add up all your estimated income
- Work out the tax on the total
- Subtract any tax credits (like PAYE)
- Add RWT and Imputation Credits
- Using the estimation option, if your estimated residual income
tax is lower than your actual residual income tax for that year,
you may be liable for interest on the underpaid amount
- You can estimate your provisional tax as many times as
necessary up until your last instalment date. Each estimate must be
fair and reasonable
Ratio option
You can base your provisional tax instalments on a percentage of
your GST taxable supplies. You will be able to use the ratio option
if:
- You've been in business and GST-registered for all of the
previous tax year, and the tax year prior to that
- Your residual income tax for the previous year is greater than
$2,500 and up to $150,000
- You file your GST returns every month or every two months
- The business you're operating is not a partnership
- Your ratio percentage that IRD calculates for you is between 0%
and 100%
The ratio will be calculated by applying the following rule:
Ratio Percentage = Residual Income Tax from previous year/GST
Taxable Supplies from previous year x 100/1
Due dates
The due date and amount of instalments you need to make for
payment of your provisional tax each year depends on your balance
date, which of the above options you use and how often you pay GST
(if registered).
If you have a 31 March balance date and use the standard
or estimation option or are also GST Registered on a 1 or 2 monthly
basis, the provisional tax payments are due on:
|
First instalment
|
28 August
|
|
Second instalment *
|
15 January
|
|
Third instalment
|
7 May
|
* If you are on a six monthly GST basis, the second installement
is not required.
Interest
Interest is payable by all Companies and Trusts that are
provisional taxpayers, and may be payable by individuals if they
have estimated their provisional tax or in other specific
circumstances.
In some circumstances you may be charged interest if the
provisional tax you paid is less than your residual income
tax. If the provisional tax you pay is more than your
residual income tax, the IRD may pay you interest on the
difference.
For futher information on provisional tax, due dates and changes
made by IRD refer to the IRD Website.