If you own overseas shares, like stocks in an American company, you might already know about the FIF (Foreign Investment Fund) rules.
Usually, you calculate your taxable income based on either 5 percent of the investment’s value at the start of the year or your actual gain, whichever is lower. The government is introducing a new valuation method to provide some tax relief for people moving to New Zealand with foreign investments. This option is called “revenue account method”, but since it won’t apply to most people, we won’t go into the details here.
This new method will be attractive to those who are taxed in their country of origin on a citizenship basis, such as the US.
