Sales tax exemption on gifts increased

Press, 12 April 1984, Page 3

Sales tax exemption on gifts increased

PA Wellington The value of gifts New Zealanders can receive from overseas without paying duty or sales tax will rise from $2O to $5O, according to the Minister of Customs, Mr Allen, yesterday. The new level applies from tomorrow.

The statement announcing the change was the first made by Mr Allen since he went on two weeks leave 10 days ago.

The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Muldoon, had told reporters that Mr Allen’s health was “not as good as it should be,” and that he had diabetes.

A spokesman for Mr Allen’s office said the Minister had been involved in the gifts tax matter and wanted to put his own statement out. He was now gradually taking up more of his portfolio duties. He believed Mr Allen was also doing some constituency work. The spokesman could not say when Mr Allen would be back at Parliament. In the statement Mr Allen said no customs charges would be payable on gifts valued at $5O or less. Higher-valued gifts would be valued for duty and sales tax on the amount by which they exceeded $5O. Regulations for gift exemption were last set in 1979, he said. In practice, the effective exemption had tended to be higher because customs officers had normally discounted retail prices in arriving at a value for their purposes. Since 1979 there had been a change in the basis on which commercial imports were valued for customs duty, and inflation had affected the cost of imports.

There had been a need to put the exemption on a more realistic basis and remove any need for administrative discretion, Mr Allen said.