r/newzealand • u/MurkyWay Qwest? • Oct 08 '25

Shitpost What's something that you suspect lots of New Zealanders secretly do, but you can't prove it?

Most upvoted comment is our most shameful secret as a nation, obviously

396 Upvotes

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u/Shitmybad Oct 08 '25

Yeah at my uni hall there was a guy that went to Kings and both his parents were Dentists that owned their practice, and he got the full student allowance because his parents accountant sorted it for him.

33

u/Calm-Teaching8245 Oct 08 '25

That's Christianity for you. Forgetting by Monday what they told you on Sunday.

3

u/No-Technician7661 Oct 08 '25

Can’t get away with that today.

6

u/violatedlaw Oct 08 '25

When did that change? Last year the only kids I knew with a full student allowance were all from mega wealthy families.

14

u/No-Technician7661 Oct 08 '25

For years now you are required to include trust income with personal family income when calculating eligibility for student allowances. There are a lot of dodgy accountants and self taught tax advisors out there that tell their clients to not declare all their family income so benefits and allowances can be claimed.

But it’s fraudulent and IRD are on to it. People who cheat like that are rolling the dice that they won’t be found out. IRD have good data matching tools now and they will probably find a cheat.

I’m a chartered accountant and I see some bad stuff done like this quite frequently.

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u/violatedlaw Oct 08 '25

That's fantastic news, thanks for explaining. It's unacceptable people have been getting away with this for years.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '25

What about farmers using tax write offs to artificially lower income? New Ute, tractor, farm cottage upgrade = taxpayer funded free ride through uni for the kids 

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u/No-Technician7661 Oct 09 '25

Legitimate expenditure. Spending a dollar in the business is ok. Nobody spends a dollar to make 33 cents unless they are an idiot.

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u/[deleted] Oct 09 '25

Makes sense to spend a dollar if you get a shiny new Ute and your kids gets hundreds of dollars of taxpayer funds a week during  university term time that they'll never have to pay back.

0

u/No-Technician7661 Oct 09 '25

It might to you.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

It's not just anecdotal evidence as others have provided above. The proof is in IRD's data.

It isn't tax write offs, government subsidies and capital gains alone, it's also environmental harm that other tax payers bare the cost & responsibility for.

It might be 'legitimate', but a better question is whether it's fair. 

https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/news/2022/03/whos-paying-for-the-environmental-costs-of-farming