A practical guide to tax planning using procedures for income equalisation

Abstract

The incomes of farmers vary significantly from year to year as a result of fluctuations in commodity prices, weather and other factors beyond their control. The highly variable nature of farming incomes has led the New Zealand Government over the past few year s to introduce a number of formal measures which can be used to level out, or equalise, incomes. The objective of this report is to develop a method of systematically analysing the potential benefits and costs as sociated with using a particular scheme, which depends upon a wide range of factors to be taken into account. From this analysis, general guidelines and rules of thumb for using the procedures effectively will be developed. It will be shown that far from being of benefit, indiscriminate use of the schemes can result in substantial real losses to farmers. It is hoped that this report will help to clarify what is still a very confused situation and result in a more logical and systematic approach to taxation planning in New Zealand farming in the future.