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RD 29: Private use of motor vehicle: formulas
or “How to calculate the value of personal use of a company car”

You could also call this:

“Rules for counting a day when calculating personal use of a work vehicle”

This law is about how to count a day when figuring out the value of using a work car for personal reasons. You need to know this for the calculations in section RD 29.

A day can be any 24-hour period. If you own or lease the car, you can choose when this period starts. If you don’t choose, it starts at midnight.

If you do choose a start time, it must be a whole hour after midnight. You need to tell the tax office about your choice when you next report about the car.

When you choose a start time, it applies from the beginning of the period you’re reporting on. It also applies to all the cars you report on.

Once you pick a start time, you have to stick with it for at least two years.

If something big changes in your business and the start time you chose doesn’t work anymore, you can ask the tax office to change it or cancel your choice.

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Next up: RD 31: Motor vehicle test period

or “Tracking personal use of company cars to calculate benefits”

Part R General collection rules
Employment-related taxes: Value of fringe benefits

RD 30Private use of motor vehicle: 24-hour period

  1. This section applies for the purposes of a calculation of the value of a benefit under section RD 29.

  2. In section RD 29(5)(a) and (b), in relation to a motor vehicle and the item days in the formulas, a day is—

  3. a 24-hour period starting from a time in a day that a person who owns or leases the vehicle chooses; or
    1. a 24-hour period starting at midnight if paragraph (a) does not apply.
      1. For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), the person must—

      2. choose a starting point for the day that is a whole number of an hour after midnight; and
        1. notify the Commissioner of their election when filing the next return relating to the vehicle.
          1. An election under subsection (2)(a)—

          2. is effective from the start of the quarter, income year, or tax year to which a return relates; and
            1. applies to all vehicles in relation to which the person files a return.
              1. If the person chooses under subsection (3)(a) a particular hour in the 24-hour period as the starting point of the day, that hour continues to apply to the use of the vehicle from the start of the relevant quarter, income year, or tax year, as applicable, for a minimum period of 2 income years.

              2. An employer may apply to the Commissioner to amend the starting point of the 24-hour period, or to treat the election as revoked, if the employer’s circumstances have changed in a way that—

              3. is more than minor; and
                1. makes the starting point no longer relevant to the employer’s business.
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                  Notes
                  • Section RD 30(6): amended, on , by section 58(1) of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).
                  • Section RD 30 list of defined terms apply: inserted, on , by section 58(2) of the Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Act 2016 (2016 No 27).