Rachel Simpson: Business NZ immigration specialist on the new migrant tax rules

There’s a belief new tax rules will attract top tech talent to the country. 

The Government's changing the rules so migrants will only pay tax on income they actually receive.  

Currently new arrivals are taxed on estimated overseas income, even if that ends up being wrong.  

Business NZ immigration specialist Rachel Simpson told Ryan Bridge this law would ensure people coming here for a short period wouldn't get double taxed. 

She says it would make rules around people working as social media influencers clear. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the government's pushed to keep top talent and investors
in the country. Tax tweaks being made, we knew about these.
Simon Watsow has introduced the bill. Migrants will no longer
be taxed on estimated overseas income, only on what they
actually earn. Rachel Simpson is an immigration specialist with Business
New Zealand, joining me this morning. Rachel, good morning, Good morning, Ryan.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
How are you very well?

Speaker 1 (00:20):
How are you very well?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Thank you very good.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Now why is it that we were basing it on
estimated overseas income to begin with?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, what the text bill does is make sure that
the immigration and tech settings makes sense with each other.
So in the case of the foreign Investment SUND rules,
there are quite a few people being caught out by
double taxation in two different countries. So we think it's
going to be a positive move to make sure that
we can attract particularly top tech talent, to make sure
that the foreign Investment sundrules realize actual income from things

(00:52):
like share sales rather than estimated.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
How many people are we talking about.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
Here, Well, we're not quite sure that of the push
onness is to be able to attract that talent to
the country. So hopefully this will make New Zealand far
more attractives to some of that talent to be able
to come here and contribute their skills and expertise to
the New Zealand tech community as well.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Everyone talks about the digital nomads, is that what we're
talking about here? Will that they be interested in this?

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Yeah? So the bill has two parts to it. So
one part takes care of the foreign Investment sundrules. The
other part makes it clear that you're coming here for
a short period of time, you're being paid by an
overseas company, you're paying tax in that overseas country. Then
we won't double texting on that either. So if you
think about things like social media influences, for example, that

(01:39):
coming here and helping promote New Zealand tourism activities, then
the text will also takes care of making the rules
around that clear.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
It means that the government will miss out on tax
take though as a consequence, right.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Well, if you look at the Foreign Investment fundrules, they're
still text on it. They're just text on it when
they actually realize that income. So there is still texation
coming in, but it's far more practical in a common
sense approach to it when the income has actually realized fear.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
But with a digital nomad, if you're coming here and
you know you're, as you say, an influencer, a social
media influence, they're coming here and taking photos of yourself
with a bikinio on the remarkables, then you're being taxed
in the UK. You will no longer be taxed here
as well.

Speaker 2 (02:28):
Well. Yeah, and I think for that situation, what you
end up doing is getting into an argument argument around
what's the nature of work. So this is a very
real case. There has been social media influencers who have
come here and as I said, this aligns the immigration
settings as well. So make sure that people know they're
not in breach of their immigration conditions if they're here

(02:49):
on a visit of visa, but they're doing some of
that promotion work while they're here as well.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Interesting stuff, Rachel, Thank you for that, Rachel Simpson, who's
immigration specialist at Business New Zealand. For more from Really
Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it
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