New Zealand tax

David543
Level 1
Geraldine, New Zealand

New Zealand tax

As a new Airbnb host in New Zealand I want to hear comments from Kiwi hosts in regards to submissions of Airbnb earnings for IRD purposes.

 

 

35 Replies 35
Tracy87
Level 1
Christchurch, New Zealand

I am new to this too and was wondering the same - I have had a look at rental income on the IRD website and by the sounds of it you must claim your rental income in your tax return. It doesn't advise how much will be taxed and it doesn't give much information. It is focused more on flatmates in rental situations... 

Michelle375
Level 1
Cambridge, New Zealand

Hi apparently if your expenses are high for the first year and you run at a loss, you can only claim the number of days you had visitors, anyone else got any advise on their tax for NZ, what you can claim on etc?

Yes. Claim only for days you have guests. 

Also claim for the area of the house guests use in respect to rates / insurance etc but again only for guest days.  

Your accountant will advise. 

 

I received advice that the apportionment of expenses for occupancy rate is not related to the days booked, but rather the days the room was available for bookings.

 

Some times of year bookings are slower, others they come thick and fast. There are days in between bookings for room cleaning/guest turnaround and so on. All of these days incur expenses despite not generating income on that day.

 

I guess you will run into problems if you are only a casual host and only occasionally accept bookings when it suits your private life. In that case it may be appropriate to only claim expenses based on days occupied.

 

The situation is slightly different for a Mixed Use Asset with more than 62 days empty a year (by empty I mean totally empty such as in the case of a holiday home that is rented out for part of the year, privately used for part of the year and empty part of the year).

 

Floor area mixed use apportionment applies to the home you live in and share with guests.

 

 

Thanks David, you have clarified what was quite confusing for many.  We have two stand alone AirBNB's and these are a business 365 days a year regardless of occupancy levels.

 

Sue251
Level 5
Tasman, New Zealand

I'm keen to know this too. As far as I can make out its rental tax which seems similar to income tax, so is taxed proportionately to your total earnings including wages.  You can claim back on expenses like WiFi and interest and power etc (I understood this to be for the portion of time your place was rented but may be wrong?). However I submitted all my stuff to mytax website this year and they said they won't do airbnb tax and I should see an accountant.  I think it's a bit of a grey area at the moment.  I have sent my figures to accountant and will see what she says and report back.  I earnt about 6k in 2017 with airbnb so am expecting to owe about 10% of that as per rental or income tax not deducting any costs. I'd love some clarification though,  have searched high and low on Google lol

Sue do you have any tips from your account back yet?

Richard250
Level 3
Auckland, New Zealand

Hi all.  I would prefer not to use an accountant.  Is anyone doing their own accounting and is there a software program you can recommend ( for dummies) or a manual recording system that keeps track of all expenses and income?  Help....

I suggest you use an Excel spread sheet.

Jero-and-Vicky0
Level 2
Ashburton, Australia

Hello, 

It is my first year on air b & b and I would like to know how did you pay your taxes last year or how i should declare the income from renting a room in my house.

I really appreciate if any of you can give me some advice.

Thanks!

Kimberly198
Level 1
Wellington, New Zealand

I have a question on tax too. If I’m only using one room for Airbnb. Do I need to pay tax?? And how? Thanks!


@Kimberly198 wrote:

I have a question on tax too. If I’m only using one room for Airbnb. Do I need to pay tax?? And how? Thanks!


 

You are running a business, so you need to declare the income. You can (and should) declare the expenses you made in generating the income, so you only pay tax on the profit.

 

You *need* good accounting advice about what you can reasonably claim as expenses for your first return, then you can probably use the information to do it yourself in subsequent years. Typically the deductions are based on proportion of the property used to generate income (say, 1 room in a 5 room house is 20%) so you might be able to claim 20% deduction for internet, utilities and even your mortgage.

 

Note that I'm in Australia (West Island) and using a home to generate income WILL have implications when the property is sold -- capital gains tax.

Tosca4
Level 1
New Zealand

Yes I am curious as we are new to Air bnb and had a few guests in our home over summer. We vacate our house and guests stay in it. So it is not a holiday home persay but our private home. We didnt make a huge amount but it certainly contributes to what we can do as a family - yes their have been expenses and I managed to kee some receipts. Any advice? Is there a threshold by which you need to submit - I think this may be quite low like $200 Thanks