IRD & Working holiday Visa SUPPORT

The goal is to help alleviate some of the recent pressure for the New IRD rules that have been placed on our sector in terms of gaining a suitable IRD number so new working holiday visitors can gain employment and continue their travel 

Working holiday visa approvals have reached close to 70,000 in 2015. This represents a large long stay market primarily suited to backpacker and Youth tourism operators.

Recent IRD rules have made it difficult for some new arrivals to gain a New Zealand tax number which had the potential to cause significant dissatisfaction and choke travel movement of these visitors while they wait for their official paper to be completed.

With some fantastic help from Natalie at IEP, BYATA submitted a paper to IRD, Minister of IRD and Minister of Tourism.

A copy or the submission with background information is here (link to the submission document).

We also discussed the problem with Andrew Johns from Immigration and investigated ways in which we can help communicate to visa holders the new IRD requirements in advance.

The outcome

•    IRD agreed to revisit their form to include a statement which allows for the fact some visitors will not have a Tax Identification Number from their home country and as such do not need to provide one. A copy of their response is here (link to the Minster’s reply).

•    This letter has been used to help with arrivals since October 2015

•    Immigration are currently working with BYATA to develop a standalone email follow up to visa holders explaining the rules and providing advice on what is needed before and on arrival.