We issue 'more information request’ letters from late May until the end of July.
If your client mail is being redirected for income tax this letter will be sent to you. Otherwise, it will go to your client.
Review the information and complete the assessment
You or your client must review this letter, add any additional income and expenses, and complete the assessment.
You need to complete it in the timeframe, which is 1 of the following:
- 45 days after we issued the letter
- 31 March of the following year if the client has an EOT.
The letter and your 'Unfiled returns report' show the date.
If we do not hear from you in the timeframe, we’ll assume we have the right information and complete the income tax assessment.
After we complete the assessment, you’ll get an income tax assessment notice.
Income tax – reportable income
All linked clients of a tax agent who get ‘reportable income’ will get a letter. Individual income tax return - IR3 filers and clients with no reportable income will not get letters.
Reportable income includes:
- salary and wages (or other PAYE income)
- schedular payments
- Leave Support Scheme (LSS)
- investment income, such as interest, dividends, or Māori authority distributions
- employee share scheme benefits
- income from portfolio investment entities (PIEs)
- losses carried forward from a previous year.
Any reportable income a third party sends us will show in the letter.
IR3 filer with only reportable income
If a client who used to file an IR3 has only reportable income now, you can still file the IR3 electronically. If you’re filing in myIR, record the income type as $0.00.
Remember to add a cease date in myIR to the other income sources. Go to the 'More' link in your client’s Income tax account, choose 'My income sources' under the 'My income' heading and add a cease date to the other income sources. Once you’ve done this, we will not select the client for an IR3 next year.
If your client qualifies for write-offs that are for qualifying individuals only (not IR3 filers), contact us to have the year’s assessment changed.
If you need to change assessments for clients with only reportable income, you can update their income tax assessment details in myIR. If you update the details before the terminal tax due date, your client will get a new assessment and we will not charge penalties or interest.
If your client received a refund based on the original assessment that is no longer valid, they have until the terminal tax due date to repay it. If they pay by the due date, we will not charge any penalties or interest.
Linking and delinking
After we issue a letter, we cannot change the complete-by date. The letter and your 'Unfiled returns report' will confirm the date we need the information by. If you link after we issue the letter, you have 45 days from the issue date to complete it
Delink after we issue the letter, your client has until 31 March of the following year to complete it. If you delink, remind your client to complete their assessment or we will hold it until 31 March next year.
Working for Families assessments
The Working for Families (WfF) entitlement amount depends on family income. We cannot complete the end of year square-up until after your client’s income tax assessment is done. If they have a partner, their assessment must be completed too. If you need to - send any Adjust your income – IR215 forms before finalisation.
The WfF section of your client list report shows clients who are registered as any of the following:
- the principal child carer
- a partner
- an ex-partner.
To promptly finalise income tax or WfF or both, do 1 of the following:
- Complete the income tax assessment by confirming the pre-populated information or by providing more information if appropriate.
- Encourage your client to complete their income tax assessment themselves in myIR.
- Delink the client before we issue the more information so that we deal with the client directly.
If your clients contact us, we will:
- direct any questions about the income tax process to you as their tax agent
- delink them if they ask us to and tell them to let you know.
You must not relink the client without a new Authority to act.
Changing and completing a more information request
You can update details in myIR and in gateway services.
If you need to file an IR3 for a customer with a pending request, you can use gateway services
We will replace the pending assessment with the IR3. You should file an IR3 only when you have non-reportable income to add, for example rent or self-employed income.
Where a client has a completed automatically issued income tax assessment, you should 'amend' the assessment, regardless of the income type you’re changing - for example interest or rent.
If you do not use 'amend', you cannot submit the change. Instead, you’ll get an error message advising of a duplicate assessment. If you get this error message, amend the assessment in myIR.
Your software needs to have 'CALC' functionality to change and confirm reportable income. If you do not have 'CALC', use myIR to complete the assessment. If you do not know if your software has 'amend' or ‘CALC’ ask your software provider.
To make sure that your client receives an IR3 next year, add their other income sources in myIR.
Client contact and bank account details
Please ensure you keep client contact details up to date.
Refunds
We process refunds faster when the bank account information is current. You can manage bank account details in myIR or when you file your client’s IR3.
To add a client bank account, use the 'Update refund bank account' service in myIR. Go to 'More' in the client's income tax account.
If you have written authority to receive client refunds and operate a disbursement account, you can use the refund redirect option. To set up a disbursement account for client refunds, contact your account manager. You must not add your own agency’s bank account to the client's account.