IR215 Section A—Working for Families Tax Credits (WfFTC) customers

Passive income includes interest, dividends, beneficiary income and rents. For a complete list of income types, go to the Inland Revenue website (search keywords: passive income of children).

If your child/children received more than $500 of passive income during the year, enter the amount over $500 at Question 4. If you share care of a child/children, divide the amount above $500 equally between yourself and the other caregiver(s).

Example:

Mary is the principal caregiver for two children, Jane and Mark, and receives WfFTC. Jane receives $900 interest and Mark receives $200 interest. Mary will have to add the amount over $500 ($400) of Jane’s interest to her family income for WfFTC. Because Mark’s interest is under $500, Mary doesn’t need to tell Inland Revenue about it.

If your spouse, civil union or de facto partner isn’t a New Zealand tax resident, Inland Revenue require their foreign-sourced income to be included as part of your family income for WfFTC. Enter the total amount of their income, in NZ dollars, in Question 5. Inland Revenue may ask you to confirm details of their income.

If you need more information about tax residency in New Zealand, please go to the Inland Revenue website (search keywords: tax residency).

You and your spouse or partner may receive payments from another person or entity to help out with your family’s household expenses. If these payments add up to more than $5,000 in a year, you need to tell us.

Example:

Jill’s parents give her $100 a week towards her mortgage payments. The total amount over the year is $5,200. Because it’s over $5,000, Jill enters $5,200 at Question 6. If the amount Jill received was $5,000 or less, Jill would leave Question 6 blank.

If a contribution is made to your retirement savings scheme on your behalf from which retirement scheme contribution tax has been withheld and you included that contribution in your tax return, enter the amount at Question 7. This may alter your WfFTC entitlement.

If you sold a building in the past year, show the amount of depreciation you’ve claimed for it in income years before 2004, unless the business income was a loss in the year the depreciation was claimed.

Example:

In this tax year Ben sold his commercial rental property. He recovered $100,000 depreciation from the sale.

Ben claimed $60,000 depreciation in 2003 and earlier tax years, and $40,000 between 2004 and 2011. He can adjust this year’s Working for Families income by $60,000 for the depreciation he claimed before 2004. Ben enters $60,000 at Question 8.