The New Zealand government recently changed the tax law to deny tax deductions for certain buildings. New Zealand also does not have a capital gains tax, meaning affected buildings are outside the scope of the tax law altogether. The effect of the tax law change is resulting in many New Zealand companies recognising a deferred tax liability in respect of existing buildings, significantly impacting profits. The Accounting Standards Review Board (ASRB) and Financial Reporting Standards Board (FRSB) have jointly issued a communique discussing the changes and Deloitte (New Zealand) has published an alert discussing the changes and their accounting implications. The IASB is currently undertaking a limited scope project on IAS 12 and has tentatively decided to consider a related issue of the treatment of revalued buildings. Click for:

• Deloitte (New Zealand) Special Accounting and Tax Alert (PDF 131kb). Past alerts are available Here
• Accounting Standards Review Board (ASRB) and Financial Reporting Standards Board (FRSB) Communique (PDF 58kb)
• Our New Zealand country page
• Summary of the IASB's IAS 12 project