FIF Filing Checklist
Use this after the responsibility check and calculator. It is designed to stop the common failure mode: getting a number, then missing a record, method limit, disclosure step, or foreign tax credit issue before filing.
Source position checked: aligned to Inland Revenue's April 2026 IR461 guide, the 2025-26 deemed-rate update, current IRD FIF/disclosure guidance, and the 2026–27 Tax Bill commentary published on 10 September 2026. Bill-stage changes are not enacted. This is still general information, not tax advice.
1
Confirm the rules apply before using a number
- Confirm you were a New Zealand tax resident and not protected by transitional resident treatment for the relevant part of the income year.
- Classify each holding: foreign company/share, foreign unit trust or ETF, FIF superannuation interest, foreign life insurance policy, NZ PIE, bank account, direct property, CFC interest, or something else.
- Remove clearly exempt rights before calculating, especially eligible ASX-listed Australian company shares, Australian-resident FIF exemptions, CFC interests, and other IR461 exemptions.
- Use the cost-threshold tracker for natural-person or eligible type A trustee cases. Current IR461 guidance uses NZ$50,000; the 2026–27 Tax Bill proposes NZ$100,000 from 1 April 2026. If cost exceeds the relevant threshold on any day, the threshold amount is not deducted. Review the four-year look-back if you previously chose to apply FIF below the applicable threshold.
- Check RAM eligibility before relying on ordinary FDR/CV. Current RAM rules focus on eligible recent migrants and some concurrent-tax cases; the 2026–27 Bill proposes wider access for New Zealand-resident natural persons and eligible trustees with qualifying unlisted foreign shares, plus extended RAM for those who meet the concurrent-tax requirements.
2
Gather the records that support the calculation
- Opening market value for each relevant FIF interest at the start of the income year, usually 1 April.
- Closing market value for each relevant FIF interest at the end of the income year, usually 31 March.
- Every purchase, sale, dividend, reinvested dividend, brokerage amount, fee rebate, and foreign tax withheld during the income year.
- Exchange rate evidence for each foreign currency amount, including the conversion method used. IR461 allows actual rates and certain rolling or mid-month approaches when applied consistently.
- Broker statements or exports from each platform, plus notes explaining any manual normalisation, split, transfer, or partial-sale allocation.
If you use Sharesies, Interactive Brokers, or Hatch, use our Sharesies export guide, IBKR export guide, or Hatch export guide to get reports you can import into the calculator.
3
Check the method limits before filing
- For common ordinary foreign shares and ETFs, the historical calculator estimates FDR and CV and compares them where that comparison is available.
- Individuals and eligible type B trustees can often compare FDR and CV for ordinary shares; companies and other taxpayers need separate method-eligibility checks.
- If the comparison option gives a negative CV result, the amount to return under that comparison is reduced to zero rather than becoming a deductible FIF loss.
- Non-ordinary shares, cost method, deemed rate of return, attributable FIF income, RAM, foreign superannuation interests, foreign life insurance policies, and corporate-migration exemption cases need specialist treatment outside the ordinary FDR/CV calculator.
- Quick-sale adjustments matter where you increased and decreased shares in the same FIF during the income year and made a gain.
4
Prepare the return and disclosure checks
- Put the assessable FIF income in the correct tax-return place for the taxpayer type and income year.
- Check whether an Overseas income summary or FIF disclosure is required. IR461 notes that some disclosure obligations can exist even where no FIF income is derived.
- Check foreign tax credits separately. The calculator does not decide credit availability, limits, Australian franking credit treatment, UK dividend tax treatment, or withholding tax credit limits.
- For overseas dividends, keep the gross dividend, foreign tax withheld, NZD conversion evidence, and a note explaining whether the dividend is ordinary overseas income or part of a FIF method.
- Keep the calculation output, broker records, exchange rate evidence, exemption notes, threshold tracker, and method selection notes together with the return workpapers.
- If you discover earlier-year omissions, consider Inland Revenue's voluntary disclosure process before an audit begins.
5
Escalate these cases before relying on the calculator
- You hold foreign superannuation, foreign life insurance, employee-share-plan rights, non-ordinary shares, options, or stapled securities.
- You are a company, trust that is not clearly type A/type B, PIE, partnership, or other non-individual taxpayer.
- You are near the relevant threshold and have transfers, split holdings, reinvested dividends, joint holdings, or older holdings without clean purchase records.
- You are a recent migrant, departing resident, treaty tie-break non-resident, US citizen/green-card holder, otherwise taxed overseas on disposals, or relying on the 2026–27 Bill's RAM changes.
- You are a founder, active investor, key employee, or New Zealand shareholder relying on attributable FIF income or the 10-year corporate-migration exemption.
- You need to claim foreign tax credits or reconcile the result with another country's return.