Boarder Income Tax Calculator

This calculator helps you work out whether the income you receive from boarders is taxable, using Inland Revenue's standard-cost method. Taking in a boarder, someone who pays to live in your home and receives meals or other services, is common, but many hosts are unsure whether the payments count as taxable income. Inland Revenue provides a simple safe-harbour approach called the standard-cost method: it sets a weekly standard cost, an allowance representing the typical cost of hosting a boarder, and only the board you receive above that standard cost is taxable. If your board payments are below the standard cost, none of the income is taxable and you do not even need to declare it, which is the case for many hosts charging modest board. This tool applies the method. You enter the weekly board you receive per boarder, the number of boarders, the number of weeks in the year they board with you, and the weekly standard cost per boarder, which is pre-filled with a typical figure you can update to the current published rate. The calculator returns the taxable income from boarders, the total board received, the total standard-cost allowance, and confirms whether any of it is taxable. The results update as you type. Use it to check whether you need to declare boarder income, to estimate the taxable portion, or to set a board rate that stays within the standard cost. The taxable amount is simply the total board received minus the total standard cost, and only when that is positive. Inland Revenue updates the weekly standard cost each year, and there are limits on the number of boarders the method covers, so check the current figures. This is a guide to the standard-cost method; the alternative is to declare actual income and claim actual expenses. Confirm your situation with Inland Revenue.

Taxable = total board - total standard cost, if positive. The weekly standard cost is set by IRD each year and limited to a number of boarders. Update it to the current figure.