Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

 Plain Language Law homepage
Back to
ZA 2: Consequential amendments to other enactments
or “Changes to other laws due to this Act”
You could also call this:

“Rules for understanding references to previous Income Tax Acts”

When you see a reference to this Act or any part of it in a document or another law, you should understand it as referring to the Income Tax Act 2004, the Income Tax Act 1994, or the Income Tax Act 1976, or the matching part of those older Acts. This is to make sure the meaning of the document or law makes sense.

In the same way, if you see a reference to the Income Tax Act 2004, the Income Tax Act 1994, or the Income Tax Act 1976, or any part of those Acts in a document or another law, you should understand it as referring to this Act or the matching part of this Act. Again, this is to make sure the meaning makes sense.

This Act, including any changes it makes to the Tax Administration Act 1994, is a rewritten version of the Income Tax Act 2004. It’s meant to have the same effect as the matching parts of the Income Tax Act 2004, but there are some exceptions to this rule.

If the meaning of a tax law that starts when this Act begins isn’t clear or doesn’t make sense, you can look at the old law that was replaced by this Act to figure out what the new law means. You can assume that for each new law, there’s a matching old law.

However, this doesn’t apply to new laws listed in schedule 51 (Identified changes in legislation), or new laws that are changed after this Act starts. For those changed laws, this rule stops applying from the day the change starts.

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 It might be out of date or be missing some parts.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

Next up: ZA 4: Saving of binding rulings

or “Keeping old tax rulings valid under new laws”
Next

Part Z Repeals, amendments, and savings

ZA 3Transitional provisions

  1. A reference in an enactment or document to this Act, or to a provision of it, is to be interpreted as a reference to the Income Tax Act 2004, or the Income Tax Act 1994, or the Income Tax Act 1976, or to the corresponding provision of the earlier Act, to the extent necessary to reflect sensibly the intent of the enactment or document.

  2. A reference in an enactment or document to the Income Tax Act 2004, or the Income Tax Act 1994, or the Income Tax Act 1976, or to a provision of that earlier Act, is to be interpreted as a reference to this Act, or to the corresponding provision in this Act, to the extent necessary to reflect sensibly the intent of the enactment or document.

  3. The provisions of this Act, including any amendments made by this Act to the Tax Administration Act 1994, are the provisions of the Income Tax Act 2004 in rewritten form, and are intended to have the same effect as the corresponding provisions of the Income Tax Act 2004. Subsection (5) overrides this subsection.

  4. Unless a limit in subsection (5) applies, in circumstances where the meaning of a taxation law that comes into force at the commencement of this Act (the new law) is unclear or gives rise to absurdity—

  5. the wording of a taxation law that is repealed by section ZA 1 and that corresponds to the new law (the old law) must be used to determine the correct meaning of the new law; and
    1. it can be assumed that a corresponding old law provision exists for each new law provision.

      1. Subsections (3) and (4) do not apply in the case of—

      2. a new law listed in schedule 51 (Identified changes in legislation); or
        1. a new law that is amended after the commencement of this Act, with effect from the date on which the amendment comes into force.

          Compare