Tax in New Zealand

[JanMBuchegger]

I have a friend who has lived in Australia for several years however he is still a New Zealand Citizen and now wants to move back. He has retired and is planning to live in both Australia and New Zealand (6-7 months Australia and 6-7 months NZ). Will he have to pay tax in New Zeland?

Hi,
Can I just ask, i'm assuming that he is drawing an Australian pension if he is retired, so do you want to know if he will have to pay tax on his pension income?

Jan,

This could be a very complex issue - it would come down to which country is 'dominant' from a residence perspective. I'm not familiar with the Aussie pension system... but if we were to assume he spent more than 6 months in NZ then he would be liable to NZ tax on *all* his World-wide income (including overseas pensions)...

I think his NZ pension entitlement (if any) would be reduced by any Aussie pension he receives (NZ IR wont allow you to receive more than one pension). If he is not entitled to a NZ pension then he should be able to draw his Aussie pension whilst in NZ (same agreement between UK and NZ) - but any NZ pension is reduced by the amount received from overseas....

Some time ago when I compared the Aussie/NZ tax systems I decided pretty quickly that (for me) NZ would be the place to be resident from a taxation perspective... Amongst other things pensions in Aus are means-tested (really!) and will reduce if you have investments etc. I've got a while to go before I get close to a pension but in my position it was clear that NZ offered the better/fairer prospects at retirement.

Like I say - Im not an expert on this and can only comment on what I found to be best for me. All the information is out there on the web.

Alan.