Luke Chemies

So I'll give you some of the general rules.

This is not specific tax advice for you.

This is educational to get you thinking.

And also, you may not know, but in New Zealand, we have a self-reporting responsibility, i.e.

we are obligated to declare our extra sources of income.

So the gangs and drug dealers, for instance,

or people who are committing crimes or doing things that are illegal, they're still obligated to return that income.

Now, somebody who is renting out their house and is earning money from doing that, they're still obligated to return that income to the IRD.

Do the IRD know?

Will they know?

Potentially not, but it's still the taxpayer's responsibility to return that.

Now, right now across New Zealand, thousands of people, probably tens of thousands, most likely think that they're running a little hobby, which they've maybe been told isn't taxable.

for all sorts of different reasons, but the IARD may think that they have a business.

Now, unfortunately, the IARD are usually right.

One of the simple rules that I use to teach people about whether you've got to pay tax on the extra income that you're making is, if you are asking the question, you're probably 95% likely that you need to be paying tax on it.

Because by the time that you're thinking about tax...

you're probably thinking, shit, I'm making money.

My bank account balance is going up.

I'm doing this repeatedly and it seems to be working.

I'm starting to think about tax.