An Omnibus Tax Bill was released on 28 June 2018 as part of the tax modernisation and simplification programme. For the most part this Bill includes further changes to remove outdated terms, processes and requirements.

The Bill also includes changes to bring the requirements to file a tax return into line with the new information the IRD will already hold going forward in relation to investment income and a new shorter form of the binding rulings process.

What may be more immediately relevant for some are proposed changes for entry to the AIM provisional tax method. Under the proposals, so long as a taxpayer has used the uplift or GST ratio method up to the point of change, they will be allowed to change to the AIM method part way through a tax year. This will involve a wash-up payment at the first AIM instalment date to bring total payments in line with that method.

Lastly, the Bill provides some updates for KiwiSaver including opening the scheme up to over 65s and increasing the allowable contribution rates from 3%, 4% and 8% to 3%, 4%, 6% and 10%.

As usual with any Bill the final enacted legislation may change but this provides an indication of where changes are expected.