Wednesday, 18 February 2015 10:41

IRD – we’re here to help!

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Now that drought has been declared by the Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy, Inland Revenue says it will exercise discretion towards affected farmers.

 The drought has been declared a medium-scale event on the east coast of the South Island from North Otago to Marlborough inclusive.

A spokesman for Inland Revenue told Rural News IRD will look at the financial situations of farmers to see how best to help them through this tough time. 

Relief options include income equalisation deposits, for which discretion is allowed to make it even more useful, and assistance with the payment of tax when there is hardship.

The income equalisation scheme allows farmers to better manage peaks and troughs in their income by allowing money to be put aside from a better year and withdrawn against a not-so-good year.  This preserves cash that can be applied for drought recovery and helps average tax rates for the year. 

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