FIF guides
Plain-English guides to the FIF rules, each from IRD’s own documents, with worked examples from the same engine as the calculators.
ASX shares and the FIF exemption: what is exempt and what is not
Shares in an ASX-listed company that is Australian resident and keeps a franking account are exempt from the FIF rules, so they do not count towards your $50,000. Most ASX-listed ETFs are unit trusts, which the company exemption does not cover; a separate, narrower test applies to them.
Read the guide →The comparative value (CV) method for FIF, with buys, sells and dividends
Comparative value taxes your actual gain for the year: closing value plus sale proceeds and dividends, minus opening value and purchases. Individuals and family trusts can use it when it gives lower income than FDR, but a CV loss is reduced to zero.
Read the guide →Under $50,000: how your foreign dividends are taxed
If your foreign shares cost $50,000 or less on every day of the year, the FIF rules do not apply and you are taxed on the dividends you receive, at your own rate. You still report them on an IR3 and can claim a credit for foreign tax withheld, within limits.
Read the guide →Fair dividend rate (FDR) explained, with worked examples
Under the fair dividend rate method your FIF income is 5% of the market value of your foreign shares on 1 April, plus a quick sale adjustment if you bought and sold within the year. Dividends and gains are not taxed separately, and FDR can never produce a loss.
Read the guide →FDR or CV: which FIF method to choose, and who can choose
If you are an individual or a family (type B) trust, you can use comparative value instead of FDR in any year where it gives lower FIF income, but you must use the same method for all your holdings. Companies and most other entities stay on FDR.
Read the guide →The proposed $100,000 FIF threshold: NOT LAW, status at 12 November 2026
The FIF threshold is still $50,000. A bill introduced on 10 September 2026 would raise it to $100,000 from 1 April 2026, but it lapsed when Parliament dissolved and is NOT LAW unless the new Parliament reinstates and passes it.
Read the guide →The $50,000 FIF threshold: cost, any day, couples and trusts
If your foreign shares cost more than $50,000 on any day of the income year, all of them are in the FIF rules for that year. Each person has their own $50,000, and it is measured on cost.
Read the guide →FIF and Hatch: reading the Hatch FIF report for your IR3
The Hatch FIF report works out FDR and CV for your Hatch holdings, including the quick sale adjustment. It does not cover other platforms or work out your tax, and Hatch says holdings transferred in or out can need extra care.
Read the guide →FIF and Interactive Brokers: statements, currencies and your IR3
We found no Interactive Brokers page offering a New Zealand FIF report, so IBKR users usually build their FDR and CV figures from activity statements. Use a 1 April to 31 March custom period, and convert from the original currency at Inland Revenue accepted rates rather than relying on the statement's base currency figures.
Read the guide →FIF and Sharesies: using the FIF report for your IR3
The Sharesies FIF report gives you FDR and CV figures for your Sharesies holdings only. If you hold foreign shares anywhere else, you add each method across every platform and use the lower total, not the lower figure per platform.
Read the guide →FIF and Stake: building your FIF figures from US dollar records
Stake's NZ tax help page names Sharesight for tax reports and does not mention a FIF report. If you are over $50,000, you build the FIF figures yourself from US dollar values, converted at an Inland Revenue accepted rate.
Read the guide →Which exchange rate to use for FIF: IRD mid-month, end-of-month and rolling rates
Pick one exchange rate method, either actual rates (IRD accepts its mid-month rate for each month) or a rolling 12-month average, and use it for all your FIF holdings. Once you use the rolling average you must keep using it. Divide the foreign amount by IRD’s rate.
Read the guide →FIF and children's shares: their own threshold and their own rate
A child who holds foreign shares in their own name is a natural person with their own $50,000 threshold, and is taxed at their own rate, often 10.5%. Shares held in a parent's name for a child are a different question, and trust distributions to under 16s have their own rule.
Read the guide →FIF for couples and joint accounts: how the $50,000 is split
Each person has their own $50,000 threshold, and jointly held shares are split between the owners. A couple holding up to $100,000 of cost jointly, and nothing else, are both under; add shares in one partner's own name and only that partner may go over.
Read the guide →FIF for family trusts: no $50,000 exemption, but a CV choice
Only individuals and a narrow group of "type A" trusts get the $50,000 exemption, and an ordinary family trust is not one of them, so on our reading its foreign shares are in the FIF rules from the first dollar. As a "type B" trust, though, it can use comparative value instead of FDR in a poor year, as an individual can.
Read the guide →How to file FIF income on your IR3: boxes 17A and 17B, IR1261 and Question 40
FIF income goes in box 17B of the IR3 as overseas income, and the foreign tax you can claim goes in box 17A. You also complete the Overseas income summary (IR1261) and answer Question 40 about foreign rights disclosure.
Read the guide →FIF and provisional tax: when FIF income tips you over $5,000
If the tax left to pay on your return is more than $5,000, you pay provisional tax for the next year. FIF income usually has no NZ tax deducted during the year, so a portfolio of around $300,000 to $400,000 or more can tip a salaried investor over the line.
Read the guide →Records to keep for FIF: a checklist for NZ investors
Keep every contract note, your 1 April and 31 March values in NZ dollars, dividends and foreign tax, and a note of the exchange rate method you chose. IRD says to keep tax records for at least 7 tax years.
Read the guide →FIF tax in NZ: the complete guide for 2025/26 and 2026/27
If your foreign shares and funds cost more than $50,000 on any day of the income year, all of them are taxed under the FIF rules, usually on 5% of their 1 April value. Individuals can use comparative value instead in a year it gives less.
Read the guide →Foreign tax credits on FIF income: US withholding, the 15% cap and other limits
You can claim a credit for foreign tax taken from your dividends, but only up to the treaty rate (15% for US portfolio dividends) and only up to the New Zealand tax on that holding’s FIF income. Anything above those limits is lost in New Zealand, and UK dividend tax and Australian franking credits are not creditable.
Read the guide →IR1261 and the FIF disclosure: what to report about your foreign investments
The IR1261 overseas income summary lists your overseas income by type and country and is needed whenever you report overseas income on an IR3. A FIF disclosure is separate: it lists each foreign investment with its value, and most individuals are exempt from it, but not from the IR1261.
Read the guide →New to NZ: transitional residents, the 4-year window and FIF
If you are a transitional resident, the FIF rules do not apply to you at all. The exemption lasts about 4 years: on IRD's wording it ends 4 years after the end of the month you became NZ tax resident, and then your foreign shares come into the rules.
Read the guide →Other FIF methods: cost method, deemed rate of return and attributable FIF income
Most investors use FDR or CV. The cost method is for foreign shares with no available 1 April market value, the deemed rate of return only for certain non-ordinary shares, and attributable FIF income for holdings of 10% or more.
Read the guide →PIE funds versus direct overseas shares: how each is taxed
Overseas shares you hold directly are taxed under the FIF rules at your marginal rate once their cost is over $50,000, with a choice of FDR or CV each year. In an NZ PIE fund, the fund works out the FIF income and pays tax at your PIR of 10.5%, 17.5% or 28%, and the fund does not count towards your $50,000.
Read the guide →The FIF quick sale adjustment, step by step
If you buy shares and sell them again in the same income year, FDR adds a quick sale adjustment. It is the lesser of 5% of the peak extra holding at average cost and your actual gain on those shares, totalled across your portfolio, and never below zero.
Read the guide →The revenue account method (RAM) for new residents: who can use it
The revenue account method taxes dividends plus 70% of the gain when you sell, instead of 5% of value every year. It is current law from 1 April 2025, but only for people who became resident from 1 April 2024 after 5 years away, and mostly only for unlisted shares.
Read the guide →UK pensions in NZ: transfers, the schedule method and scheme pays
A UK pension you joined before moving here is usually taxed in NZ only when you take a lump sum or transfer it, not every year as a FIF. Inside your first 4 years it is generally exempt; after that you include a schedule percentage of the lump sum, rising with each year here.
Read the guide →US 401(k) and IRA accounts in NZ: FIF or foreign super?
IRD has not published guidance naming 401(k) or Roth IRA accounts. It has said IRAs are "likely to be foreign superannuation schemes"; if that is right, an account you joined before moving here is usually taxed when you withdraw or transfer, not every year.
Read the guide →Form W-8BEN for New Zealand investors: 15% instead of 30% on US dividends
A W-8BEN tells a US payer you are not a US person and claims the New Zealand treaty rate, so US tax on your dividends is 15% instead of 30%. It does not change your New Zealand FIF income, but New Zealand only credits 15%, so without one you lose the extra.
Read the guide →What is FIF? New Zealand foreign investment fund tax in plain English
FIF is the way New Zealand taxes most overseas shares and funds once their total cost is over $50,000 on any day of the year. You are taxed each year on a set formula, usually 5% of the 1 April value, rather than on dividends and sale gains.
Read the guide →More guides are on the way. Each will be checked against IRD’s documents before it goes up.
Calculators
Every FIF tool
Your FIF tax for the year
Holdings in, the $50,000 test, FDR and CV side by side, the lower allowed method, tax and your IR3 boxes.
Open →The $50,000 test
Cost, not market value, on any day of the year. Couples, joint holdings, trusts and the 4-year look-back.
Open →Fair dividend rate calculator
5% of your 1 April value plus the full quick sale adjustment, with last in, first out matching.
Open →Comparative value calculator
Closing value plus sales and dividends, less opening value and purchases, with the loss floor and the method choice.
Open →IRD exchange rates for FIF
Inland Revenue’s end-of-month, mid-month and rolling 12-month rates, with a converter.
Open →Under $50,000: dividend tax
Below the threshold your foreign dividends are ordinary income. Tax, foreign tax credit and IR3 boxes.
Open →Is this a FIF?
ASX shares, NZ PIE funds, employee shares, foreign super, crypto: in or out of the rules.
Open →New to New Zealand
Your transitional resident end date, and the revenue account method if you qualify.
Open →Overseas shares or an NZ PIE fund
The same money taxed both ways, side by side. Figures only, no recommendation.
Open →Is the threshold $100,000 yet?
No. Dated status of the lapsed bill, and the proposal on your own figures, marked NOT LAW.
Open →