A Tax Refund in NewZealand would normally come around end of tax year, period which runs from April 1 till March 31, meaning between 1st April and 31st March of the following year. Those who are on wages, tax have taken automatically out of their earnings, in most cases, via the Pay As You Earn system (PAYE) over the course of the year. After 31 March IRD use your information about your income and deductions (e.g. what you’ve earned, contributed to KiwiSaver, paid/received interest, received schedular payments etc) to work out your final tax for the year. If you have paid more than you owe, the IRD will refund you; if you have paid too little, you will receive a bill. In many cases you won't need to do anything - you'll get an income tax assessment that tells you what your status is.
The money is paid into a bank account that IRD has on file. Refunds generally paid between late May and July as they complete processing assessments. For most people on standard income (salary, wages, taxed investment return) most of the assessments will have been done and most do not need to file an IR3 return unless you have different sources of income such as rental or overseas income or from a business. Keeping your personal details current in your myIR account is key to receiving payments on time. If IRD doesn’t have your bank details or there is a problem with the payment, they will contact you to fix it.
đź“Ś Note: The above Tax refund calculator is indicative only and show the approximate refund amount. Please login to your myIR account to see the updates of your tax refund.