DIY: Tax Refunds in NZ, without the middleman taking a cut

July 8, 2010 Chilling_Silence How-To's / Guides / Tech info

EDIT: Updated for 2011
So the end of financial year rolled around a while ago. I thought “What a great chance for me to check my taxes”, considering I’d not been employed half the year.

I’m glad that I did! I was entitled to a rebate.

Now, I could just use a service like I have in the past such as taxrefunds.co.nz, but they charge something like 15%. That might not seem like much, but when your refund is $1,000, they’re taking $150 just to do something you can do yourself in a few minutes.

The whole process only took me about 5-10 minutes in total, and was surprisingly stress-free!

Here’s how (With pretty pictures):

First of all you need your IRD number

Once you’ve got that, sign up for the IRD Online Services website:

https://e-services2.ird.govt.nz/interact/services/ird/registration/

This will allow you to check things online like your tax refunds etc, just like you’d have to sign up for a Tax Refund-specific website.

It will ask you for your first and last name (Hopefully you know what these are), your date of birth (I think you should know what that is also) as well as a contact phone number and email address for you. You get to pick a UserID and password, and then a “passphrase” that they’ll ask you for if you forget your password.

Once you’re all signed up

You’ll need to ring the IRD on 0800 227 774 to get your account “activated”.

It will ask you if you are calling about a PTS (Personal Tax Summary), say No. Then, enter your IRD number.

When the message asks you what you want to do, tell it “Online Services registration”. It will confirm that you are calling for “Online Services”, tell it yes.

You shouldn’t need to hold long before it suggests that they ring you back (About 60 seconds usually). Press 1 to accept.

They’ll then ask you for your callback phone number. Punch in your phone number, including area code, and then the # key. For example: 098345678#

You’ll say your full name after that, then press the # key again, and the voice prompt will confirm when you’ll be called back. My first call was 2-4 minutes, but only 5 minutes later when I rang back again it told me I’d be waiting over 45 minutes. Your mileage may vary.

The IRD will call you back shortly

When you’re speaking with somebody you’re going to basically tell them you want to “Activate your Online Services account”. They’ll ask you a couple of security questions to verify that they’re actually speaking with you, such as your name and address, but the whole process is usually very painless. If they ask who your current tax agent is, if you’re anything like me and have used Taxrefunds.co.nz then that’s who your tax agent is.

Now is probably a good time to ask them to remove your current tax agent if it’s somebody like Tax Refunds. You can ask them who your current tax agent is. If it’s the likes of Tax Refunds, it’s worth removing them so that your correspondence doesn’t get posted to them.

Once you’re done and activated, you can login to the IRD Online Services website:

https://e-services.ird.govt.nz/interact/myservices/e-services/welcome

Or, go to http://www.ird.govt.nz and click on “Log In” in the top right-hand side.

Once you’re logged in you’ll see a screen summarizing your tax affairs, like mine:

Doing your Return – The easy part!

Yes, this is the easy bit now!
You’ll see under “Income Tax” is a couple of arrows for “More Detail”. Click on that. You will be taken to a page showing your results for the last few years, giving you the option to “Go to My Income Tax” to file an IR3. Click on that for the 2010 -> 2011 year:

The next screen confirms the year, again choose 2011 IR3:

For the next screen it’ll ask you a few questions. For me I just had to scroll right the way to the bottom and hit “Continue”:

Then it’ll tell you if you’re up for a refund or not. If you are, then great, continue. If not, then don’t file the return:

Scroll right to the bottom, tick the “I agree” box, and hit “Send to Inland Revenue”:

That’s it, you should be done, and your tax refund is on its way! If you chose Cheque, then it’ll be in the mail within a week or two. If you chose Direct Bank Credit, they usually happen faster.

If this has been of use to you in any way, please leave a comment and just say Hi.

IRD, PAYE, PTS, Tax, tax refund,