Inland Revenue Department

The Inland Revenue Department (te Tari Taake), commonly called Inland Revenue or IRD, is the New Zealand government department responsible for collecting tax and administering social policy payments. For residential property owners, Inland Revenue sets and enforces the rules on rental income, deductible rental expenses, the bright-line property rule on residential land sales, interest deductibility (restored in stages from the 2024 changes), the residential rental ring-fencing rules, and residential land withholding tax.

Inland Revenue requires residential rental owners to keep records that substantiate every income and deduction figure in a tax return. It receives data from a range of sources and can review returns where reported figures do not reconcile. Property sales that fall inside the bright-line period must be reported using IR833, with supporting evidence of the bright-line start and end dates and any main-home or rollover-relief position.

Records Inland Revenue can ask a New Zealand landlord to produce: rental income summaries, tenancy agreements, loan statements supporting interest claims, invoices for repairs and maintenance, evidence distinguishing deductible repairs from non-deductible capital improvements, ring-fencing loss carry-forward workings, and — for a sale — purchase and sale agreements, settlement statements, and bright-line date evidence. Inland Revenue generally requires records to be kept for seven years.