IR3 Question 34 Refunds and/or transfers

If you’re entitled to a refund, you can:

transfer all or part of it to your student loan
transfer all or part of it to cover someone else’s income tax or student loan
transfer all or part of it to your 2020 provisional tax
have it direct credited to a bank or other deposit account, for example, a building society account shown at Question 8.

If you’ve made payments towards your 2020 provisional tax and, after completing this return, find you have less or no provisional tax to pay, Inland Revenue can include the overpayment in the amount Inland Revenue refund or transfer. Print the overpaid amount in Box 34A.

Direct credit

If you choose direct credit you get your refund faster and you can withdraw your money as soon as it’s credited because there’s no clearance time.

Inland Revenue pay any refund direct into your New Zealand bank account or other deposit account, for example, a building society account as soon as they’ve processed your return. Make sure your correct bank account number is printed at Question 8 on the front page of your return.

Refunds of less than $5

If your refund is less than $5 Inland Revenue will carry it forward to your next tax assessment. They’ll offset it against any amount you may owe Inland Revenue or add it to any refund. If you don’t want it carried forward please call Inland Revenue.

Transfers

If you’d like your refund transferred to another account or to arrears being paid off through an instalment arrangement, you’ll need to tell Inland Revenue the date you’d like your excess tax transferred (the “transfer date”).

The date you can choose depends on what tax has been overpaid and whose account you want the credit transferred to.

For more information on the rules for working out the date the transfer is available, please refer to the tables on the Inland Revenue website www.ird.govt.nz (search keywords: credit transfers).

Requesting transfers on your return

You can ask Inland Revenue to transfer a refund to another account by filling out the boxes on page 5 of your return. If you ask for a transfer on your return, Inland Revenue will transfer your refund at one of the following dates:

Transfer to your own account or an account of someone associated to you, the later of:
the day after your balance date (or 1 April if your balance date is before 31 March), or
the due date in the destination account.
Transfer to an account of someone not associated to you:
the day after your return was filed.

If you don’t tell Inland Revenue the date you’d like your credit transferred, they will transfer it at a date they think gives you the greatest advantage. If you’d like the credit transferred at a different date, you can contact Inland Revenue and ask for the transfer date to be changed (including if Inland Revenue have transferred your credit to cover a debt).

Associated taxpayers

The following are associated taxpayers for the purposes of transferring overpaid tax:

a company you’re a shareholder-employee in
a partner in the same partnership
a relative (for example, child, parent)
spouse or partner
a trustee of a family trust you’re a beneficiary of.

Transfers requiring a separate note attached to the return

Situations such as requesting a transfer at a future date, transfer to arrears being paid off by an instalment arrangement and transfers at a different date will require you to attach a separate note to your return advising the following specific details.

The amount you want transferred.
The account you want it transferred to, for example, name, IRD number, tax type and period end date (and if it’s another person, whether they’re associated).
The date you’d like the credit transferred.
If it is to be transferred to debt covered by an instalment arrangement.

Special rules apply if the return period has had tax pooling funds transferred in.