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Thread ID: 98296 2009-03-19 04:32:00 Income tax on cash gifts george12 (7) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
757696 2009-03-19 04:32:00 My uncle has very kindly offered me $100 a month to help with the cost of university.

Can anybody tell me if this counts as taxable income or not? I've been trying to call the IRD but their phone system is apparently "overloaded"....
george12 (7)
757697 2009-03-19 04:38:00 If the IRD doesn't know....... somebody (208)
757698 2009-03-19 04:57:00 If the IRD doesn't know.......
But now they do because george has just told the whole world...... :p
Renmoo (66)
757699 2009-03-19 04:59:00 No. andrew93 (249)
757700 2009-03-19 05:13:00 So if the Uncle gives you cash it is a gift of $100 per Month. Your Uncle may well have to try to write off this gift depending on other circumstances. If your Uncle is trying to give away assets to avoid tax then that brings up another issue. A gift is not normally income as far as you are concerned.

Divide $100 by 4.33 gives you a result of $23.094688 cents per week. The 4.33 figure is derived by the number of actual weeks in a year rather than the calendar which says there are 52 weeks in a year. I take it that you have noticed that some months include five Saturdays for example.

If you can not contact the IRD by phone, then, as you apparently have the internet, you could try here.

http://www.ird.govt.nz/
Sweep (90)
757701 2009-03-19 05:33:00 That's just pocket money pretty much and last time I checked, pocket money isn't taxed. beeswax34 (63)
757702 2009-03-19 05:56:00 Sue the government if they want to tax you for the pocket money you receive from your uncle. qazwsxokmijn (102)
757703 2009-03-19 06:11:00 Sue the government if they want to tax you for the pocket money you receive from your uncle.

Do not put the pocket money in a bank! Bank accounts are taxed to the point where capital actually disappears when you include Govt tax on interest along with bank charges which appear with increasing regular charges charged by the bank in the way of administration fees and etc.
Sweep (90)
757704 2009-03-19 09:11:00 I read somewhere once that a family member could give another members up to $27k in any calandar year without attracting the IRD. Could be wrong as I've never had that much to throw around but it sounded nice at the time. Scouse (83)
757705 2009-03-19 10:32:00 I read somewhere once that a family member could give another members up to $27k in any calandar year without attracting the IRD. Could be wrong as I've never had that much to throw around but it sounded nice at the time.

Yeah, that figure is all over the place, but $27k is the point where the giver has to pay gift duty.

And obviously I checked the IRD website. They don't say either way whether gifts are taxable income. They specifically say that if you are not sure if something is income you must call them to find out.

I was hoping somebody knew, and it seems the answer is a fairly definite no. If anyone can confirm or refute this that's cool, otherwise I'll try the IRD again tomorrow.
george12 (7)
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