This paper offers an historical, economic, constitutional, and contextual survey of the New Zealand tax system. The focus is on income tax, but the paper also briefly describes the “goods services tax”, the name given to the New Zealand value added tax. The focus is on domestic taxation, but...

This paper comprises a transcript of the oral addresses and discussion at a colloquium that compared the general anti-avoidance rule of income tax law with the civil law doctrine of Rechtsmissbrauch (abuse of law) and similar doctrines in eight jurisdictions: Germany, Croatia, New Zealand,...

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...

The Taxation (Beneficiary Income of Minors, Service-Related Payments and Remedial Matters) Act 2001 taxes the income of most beneficiaries of trusts who are minors at 33 per cent. This measure responded to parents strategically diverting income to their children via trusts, with a view to that...

Governments attack tax avoidance in a number of ways. Statutory anti-avoidance rules are one means. Such rules come in two forms: specific and general. General rules potentially apply to any kind of transaction that may result in tax avoidance. Section 99 of the New Zealand income Tax Act 1976...

Section 67 of the Income Tax Act 1976 taxes as income certain gains on the sale of land that would ordinarily be classed as capital. Several proposals were made to repeal the section or severely to limit its effect. The article argues that the section contains a number of flaws, though none that...

The passage of the Land and Income Assessment Act 1891 saw the introduction of income tax in New Zealand. Since then there have been many changes to the regime but none have softened the reputation of income tax law as being the most complicated and internally inconsistent of all laws. There are...

The New Zealand Income Tax Amendment Act 1989 completed the reform of the New Zealand laws on the taxation of superannuation schemes. The object was to bring the taxation of superannuation schemes into line with the taxation of other forms of saving. The Act introduces the specified...