Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Income Tax Act 2007

Deductions - Motor vehicle expenditure

DE 6: Using logbook for test period

You could also call this:

“Keeping a logbook to calculate business use of your car”

If you want to figure out how much you use your car for business, you can keep a logbook for a certain time. This is called a test period. The test period helps you work out the percentage of business use for your car during a specific time, which is called a logbook term.

When you use a logbook to show how much you use your car for business, you need to do two things:

  1. Write down information in the logbook during the test period.
  2. Keep track of how far you drive in total during the logbook term.

The logbook term can be a whole year or part of a year. By doing this, you can show how much of your car use is for business purposes.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1513867.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Taxes
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DE 5: Actual records, or

“Keeping detailed records of business vehicle use”

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DE 7: Logbook requirements, or

“Rules for keeping a vehicle logbook for business use”

Part D Deductions
Motor vehicle expenditure

DE 6Using logbook for test period

  1. A person may keep a logbook for a test period for the purpose of establishing the proportion of the business use of a motor vehicle for an income year, or part of an income year, that falls within a logbook term. If a person uses a logbook as a method of establishing the proportion of business use, they must also record the total distance travelled in each income year, or part of an income year, that falls within a logbook term.

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