Proposed Inheritance Tax Calculator NZ
Speculative: this tax does not exist
New Zealand has no inheritance tax. Estate duty was abolished for deaths from 1992, and gift duty followed in 2011. This page models a tax that has not been introduced, legislated or announced as government policy. It exists so you can see what such a tax would cost if it were ever introduced at a rate you choose.
The rate is yours to set on the slider. The starting figure is an illustrative round number, not a proposal, and is not attributed to any political party. No numbers on this page describe current New Zealand law, and none should be quoted as though they do.
This calculator models an inheritance or estate tax, if New Zealand reintroduced one. No such tax exists today. New Zealand abolished estate duty for deaths from December 1992, and abolished gift duty in 2011, so an estate can currently pass to beneficiaries without a tax on the transfer itself. That does not mean an estate is entirely free of tax questions: income earned by the estate before it is distributed is taxable, and assets that were already subject to the bright-line test remain so. But there is no tax on inheritance as such. An inheritance tax is normally charged only above a threshold, which is what keeps most estates out of it entirely, and the design choice that matters is whether the threshold applies to the whole estate or to each beneficiary. You enter the estate value and any debts, set the threshold and the rate, and the calculator shows the taxable estate, the tax, and what each beneficiary would receive.
A hypothetical figure for a tax that does not exist. It is arithmetic on the rate you chose, not a forecast, a policy costing or advice.
How it works
The net estate is the total value less debts and funeral costs. The taxable amount is the net estate above the threshold you set, never less than zero. The tax is that amount multiplied by the rate on the slider. What each beneficiary receives is the net estate less the tax, divided equally between them, which assumes an even split.
Worked example
An estate of $1,800,000 with $120,000 of debts has a net value of $1,680,000. With a threshold of $1,000,000, the taxable amount is $680,000. At 20 percent the tax would be $136,000, leaving $1,544,000 to divide. Split between three beneficiaries that is about $514,667 each.
Related calculators
- Inheritance Split Calculator: divide an estate under current rules, with no tax.
- Proposed Gift Tax Calculator: a hypothetical tax on lifetime gifts.
- Proposed Asset Tax Calculator: a hypothetical annual tax on net wealth.
- Proposed Capital Gains Tax Calculator: a hypothetical tax on gains.
- All Proposed Tax Calculators: the full speculative category, and what New Zealand actually taxes.