All vendors and purchasers of property other than their main home must now provide an IRD number as part of the land transfer process.

Non-residents
Offshore buyers must provide a New Zealand bank account number before they can obtain a New Zealand IRD number.

And all non-resident buyers and sellers must provide their tax identification number from their home country, along with current identification requirements such as a passport.

Family trusts
Where a family’s main home is owned by the family trust, the trust is not exempt from providing an IRD number.

It’s quite common for a trust to own the family home, protecting the family from business or other relationship property risks.

Up till now family trusts haven’t needed IRD numbers unless they operated a business or owned rental properties. Now, when the family home is transferred into the trust or when the trust buys or sells property, the trust needs an IRD number.

Trustees’ own personal IRD numbers aren’t acceptable.

The new requirements also affect changes of title. So, if a trustee dies or retires and the new trustee’s name needs to be registered on the property title, the trust needs an IRD number to register the change.

If you are arranging for the family trust to buy, sell or transfer property, please contact us.

If the trust does not already have an IRD number we can take care of this. Otherwise you could face costly and stressful delays while you sort out the paperwork.

If you have any questions or would like further information, please feel free to contact us.