Does a cooked lobster packed in an individually sealed plastic bag constitute a “prepared fish dinner” or “prepared consumer fish pack” for the purposes of the Income Tax Act 1976, section 156? In Taspac Seafoods Ltd. v. Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1983) 6 NZTC 61,636, 6 TRNZ 513,...

CIR v. Banks (1978) 2 NZLR 472 considered the issue of deductibility of home office expenses. Richardson J rejected the Australian approach, which holds that if the initial capital outlay was made for private purposes, the fact that the property is later used for income-producing is immaterial....

A discussion of the relevant clauses of the Fourth Schedule of the Income Tax Act 1976, which details what can be claimed as expenditure incurred in the course of employment. The discussion is made in light of two cases – Taxation Review Authority Case 18 (1980) 4 TRNZ 199 and Quin v....

A comment on the case of Grieve v Commissioner of Inland Revenue (1982) 5 NZTC 61,145. The taxpayer had run a loss-making business which he had continued to deduct from other income. Eventually, the Commissioner decided to disallow further deductions. The court upheld the Commissioner's...

There are several fundamental problems with the judicial concept of income, that is, the concept of income that the courts employ for tax purposes. First, the judicial concept sees income as a flow, rather than as a gain. Secondly, as a consequence, it taxes some apparent flows that do not...

We cannot have an income tax without a concept of income. For a number of reasons, our concept of income must be artificial. A principal reason is that income tax law generally taxes the results of legal transactions rather than their underlying economic substance, which causes a dislocation...

There are several fundamental problems with the judicial concept of income, that is, the concept of income that the courts employ for tax purposes. First, the judicial concept sees income as a flow, rather than as a gain. Secondly, as a consequence, it taxes some apparent flows that do not...

Among the possible responses to the problem of avoidance a country may enact a general anti-avoidance rule, couched in terms wide enough to frustrate tax planning strategies that have yet to be invented. One difficulty of general anti-avoidance rules is that they cannot be interpreted as undoing...

In his Technical Information Bulletin of February 1990 the Commissioner of Inland Revenue issued a policy statement on Section 99 of the New Zealand Income Tax Act 1976. Section 99 is a general anti-avoidance provision that voids for income tax purposes arrangements that have the purpose or...

A report on a conference organised jointly by the Institute of Policy Studies, Wellington, the Asian Pacific Tax and Investment Centre, Singapore, and the Australian Tax Research Foundation, Sydney. The purpose was to study judicial and legislative anti-avoidance measures and treaty policies in...