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RC 25: Consequences of change in balance date
or “How to handle tax payments when you change your financial year-end date”
You could also call this:

“How registering for GST or cancelling registration affects your provisional tax payments”

This section talks about what happens to your provisional tax payments when you register for GST or cancel your GST registration. If you use the standard or estimation method for calculating provisional tax, this applies to you.

If you register for GST and pay monthly or every two months, or if you cancel your GST registration after paying this way, your provisional tax payment dates won’t change.

If you register for GST and start paying every six months, you’ll need to pay your provisional tax on the C and F instalment dates that match your new GST payment schedule.

If you’ve been paying GST every six months and you cancel your registration, you’ll need to pay your provisional tax on the B, D, and F instalment dates that come after 30 days from when you cancelled.

The date of cancellation is considered to be the later of when you tell the tax office about the cancellation or when you stop being responsible for GST.

The amount you need to pay for each instalment is worked out using section RC 10.

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Next up: RC 27: Payment of provisional tax instalments when GST cycle changed

or “Rules for paying provisional tax when you change your GST payment frequency”
Next

Part R General collection rules
Provisional tax: Table R1: Summary of instalment dates and calculation methods for provisional tax

RC 26Registering for GST or cancelling registration

  1. This section applies if a person who uses the standard or estimation method to determine the amount of provisional tax payable for a tax year—

  2. applies to the Commissioner to become a registered person under section 51 of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985; or
    1. is treated as registered under section 51B of that Act; or
      1. asks the Commissioner to cancel their GST registration, or has their GST registration cancelled under section 52 of that Act.

        1. For a person liable to pay provisional tax who becomes registered for GST paying on a monthly or 2-monthly basis, or who cancels or has their GST registration cancelled having paid on that basis, the instalments of provisional tax payable by them for the tax year are unaffected.

        2. A person liable to pay provisional tax who becomes registered for GST paying on a 6-monthly basis must pay their instalments of provisional tax on whichever dates of instalments C and F for their corresponding income year coincide with the cycle of their taxable periods after they become a registered person.

        3. A person liable to pay provisional tax who pays GST on a 6-monthly basis and cancels their GST registration or has their registration cancelled, must pay their instalments of provisional tax on whichever dates of instalments B, D, and F for their corresponding income year occur after 30 days from the date of cancellation.

        4. For the purposes of subsection (4) and the provisional tax rules, the date of cancellation is the later of the date on which—

        5. the cancellation of GST registration is notified:
          1. the person's liability under section 52 of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 stops.

            1. The amount of each instalment is calculated under section RC 10.

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            Notes
            • Section RC 26(5): substituted, on , by section 537 of the Taxation (Business Taxation and Remedial Matters) Act 2007 (2007 No 109).
            • Section RC 26 list of defined terms apply: inserted, on , by section 74 of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).
            • Section RC 26 list of defined terms ask: inserted, on , by section 74 of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).
            • Section RC 26 list of defined terms notify: inserted, on , by section 74 of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).