IR7 Question 12 New Zealand dividends
Dividends are the part of a company’s profits that it passes on to its shareholders. Unit trusts are treated as companies for income tax purposes. Distributions from unit trusts will generally be taxable and are treated as dividends.
Complete Question 12 if you received any New Zealand dividends, including dividends from your local electricity or gas supplier. Don’t include a dividend that’s a distribution of the trust’s capital and is tax free. The company or unit trust that paid you the dividend will send you a dividend statement.
Don’t send in any dividend statements with your return, but keep them in case Inland Revenue ask for them later.
If expenses are deductible against the dividend income (for example, commission), claim them at Question 21. Read the note about Expenses.
Credits attached to dividends
A New Zealand company or unit trust may attach several types of credits to dividends.
“Imputation credits” are credits for part of the tax the company has already paid on its profits, which means the dividends aren’t taxed twice.
RWT is deducted from your dividend to bring the total credits withheld up to 33% of the gross dividend.
What to show in your return
Your dividend statements show the amount:
you received (net dividend)
of any imputation credits
of any RWT credits.
Add all these amounts together to work out your total gross dividends and enter this in Box 12B.
Add up all the imputation credits and print the total in Box 12. Add any dividend RWT credits and print the total in Box 12A.
Shares instead of dividends
If the partnership or LTC received shares instead of dividends, include them as income at Question 12. Write the amount as if you received dividends instead of shares.
Dividends from overseas
Please read about IR7 Question 16 Overseas income in this guide.