We start issuing more information request letters from late May. You have 45 days from the issue date to complete more information requests. If you have an extension of time (EOT), you have until 31 March of the following year.
If you have clients who need their income tax or Working for Families (WfF) assessment, or both, to be finalised promptly, you should do 1 of the following.
- Make sure you send any Adjust your income – IR215 forms before finalisation
- Complete the income tax assessment by confirming the pre-populated information or by providing more information if appropriate.
- Encourage your client to complete their income tax assessment themselves in myIR.
- Delink the client before we issue the more information request so that we deal with the client directly.
If your clients contact us, we will:
- direct any questions about the income tax process to you as their tax agent
- delink them if they ask us to and tell them to let you know.
You must not relink the client without a new Authority to act.
Issuing of the Income tax - more information request
We’ll start issuing more information request letters from late May until the end of July.
We’ll also issue letters for WfF customers and their partner(s) from the end of May.
We’ll issue any remaining Income tax - more information request letters at the end of July.
If your client mail is being redirected for income tax, this letter will be sent to you. Otherwise, it will go directly to your client.
Income tax - more information request
All linked clients of a tax agent who get ‘reportable income’ will get an ‘Income tax – more information request’. IR3 filers and clients with no reportable income will not get letters.
Reportable income includes:
- salary and wages (or other PAYE income)
- schedular payments
- Leave Support Scheme (LSS)
- investment income, such as interest, dividends, or Māori authority distributions
- employee share scheme benefits
- income from portfolio investment entities (PIEs)
- losses carried forward from a previous year.
Any reportable income a third party sends us will pre-populate into the more information request notice.
You or your client must review this information, add any additional income and expenses, and complete the assessment. You'll need to complete it within the timeframe, which is 1 of the following:
- 45 days after the date of issue
- 31 March of the following year if the client has an EOT.
The letter and your 'Unfiled returns report' will confirm the date to complete it by.
If we do not hear from you within the timeframe, we’ll assume we have the right information and complete the income tax assessment.
When it’s completed, you’ll get an income tax assessment notice.
Linking and delinking timeframes
After we issue an Income tax - more information request letter, we cannot change the complete-by date. The letter and your 'Unfiled returns report' will confirm the date we need the information by. If you:
- link after we issue the letter, you have 45 days from the issue date to complete it
- delink after we issue the letter, your client has until 31 March of the following year to complete it.
If you delink after we’ve issued the letter, remind your client to complete their assessment or we will hold it until 31 March the following year.
Working for Families assessments
You may need to prioritise clients who rely on their WfF assessment each year.
The entitlement depends on family income – we cannot complete the end of year square-up until after your client’s income tax assessment(s) are done. If there are associated partners their assessments should be completed too. The WfF section of your client list report shows clients who are registered any of the following:
- the principal child carer
- a partner
- an ex-partner.
IR3 Income tax return filer and now only has reportable income
You can still file the IR3 electronically. If you’re filing in myIR, record that income type as $0.00.
After you’ve filed the return in myIR go to the 'More' link in your client’s Income tax account, choose 'My income sources' under the 'My income' heading and add a cease date to the other income sources. This action will stop us selecting the client for an IR3 the following year.
If your client qualifies for any write offs only available to qualifying individuals (not IR3 filers), contact us to have the year’s assessment changed.
Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 31 No 4 - May 2019
Changing and completing an Income tax - more information request
You can update details in myIR and the gateway income tax service. The returns service (gateway services) lets you to change and complete a more information request.
If you need to file an IR3 for a customer with a pending Income tax - more information request, you can file this through the income tax return service in your software. We no longer need to intervene.
We will replace the pending assessment with the IR3. You should only do this when you have non-reportable income to add (for example rent or self-employed income), otherwise just complete the existing assessment.
Where a client has a completed automatically issued income tax assessment, you will need to 'amend' the assessment, regardless of the income type (eg. interest/rent) you’re changing.
If you do not use 'amend', you cannot submit the change. Instead, you’ll get an error message advising of a duplicate assessment. In this case you’ll l need to amend the assessment in myIR.
If you are trying to change and confirm reportable income, your software needs to have 'CALC' functionality. If you don't have 'CALC', you will need to use myIR to complete the assessment.
If you do not know if your software has 'amend' or ‘CALC’ ask your software provider.
You can make sure that your client receives an IR3 return in future years by adding their other income sources in myIR.Go to the 'More' link in your client’s income tax account and:
- choose 'My income sources' under the 'My income' heading
- add the other income sources.
Updates and amendments
If you need to change assessments for clients with only reportable income, you can update their income tax assessment details in myIR. If you do this before the terminal tax due date, your client will get a new assessment and we will not charge penalties or interest.
If your client has a refund because of the original assessment, they have until the terminal tax due date to repay it. If they pay by the due date, we will not charge any penalties or interest.
Tax Information Bulletin - Vol 31 No 4 - May 2019
Client contact details and refunds
Please ensure all client contact details are kept up to date. You can manage this in myIR.
So that we can process refunds faster, please keep client bank account details up-to-date. You can update them in myIR or when you file their income tax return. Or, you can use the refund redirect option if you hold written authority to receive client refunds and operate a disbursement account.
If you want to set up a disbursement account to receive client refunds, please contact your account manager.
You must not add your own agency bank account to the client's account.
Adding a client’s bank account in myIR
To add a client bank account, use the 'Update refund bank account' service in myIR. Go to 'More' in the client's income tax account.
If you cannot see the 'Update refund bank account' link, contact your agency administrator to update your access permissions. You need to have 'Full account' access to add or edit a refund bank account.
Redirecting client refunds
To redirect refunds for an existing client, go to the 'Delink or manage links' section in myIR. Under the refund options choose 'Client' and this will change to 'Tax agent'. Submit your changes. For new clients, choose 'Refunds to tax agent' in the redirect section when linking.
Investment income
To update investment income percentages for future years in myIR go to the 'More' link in your client’s income tax account and choose 'Update investment percentage' under the 'My income' heading.
The percentage split will remain until it is updated again by you or your client.
The update will only be to the individual’s ownership percentage. Other account holders will still need to update their details.
When PIE income is included
Income from a portfolio investment entity (PIE) is included in the:
- income displayed in myIR
- summary of income
- automatic income tax assessment or individual income tax return - IR3.