Make payments to Inland Revenue: Overseas payments
Making payments to us from outside New Zealand
You can make a payment from overseas by any of the following methods:
- telegraphic transfer
- foreign bank draft
- personal foreign cheque
- foreign postal order
- by debit or credit card (currently only available to student loan borrowers and child support paying parents).
You will need to check with your bank to see if there is a fee involved.
Alternatively, if you operate a bank account with a New Zealand bank, you can make a payment by using their online banking service. You will need to contact your bank for further information.
Telegraphic transfer
Telegraphic transfer payments are an electronic transfer of funds to or from an overseas bank. Each bank has its own unique telegraphic transfer form that you will need to complete to make a payment to Inland Revenue. You can use the Telegraphic transfer form (under the "forms and guides" section) to help you fill it in. Please ensure your IRD number, tax type and the period the payment is for are included in the payment details section.
| Note | |
| The bank sending the payment as well as the bank receiving the payment will charge for this. You'll need to discuss both these charges with the bank you're sending the payment from. | |
Foreign bank draft/personal cheque
From some overseas countries you can post us a cheque to pay your tax bill. Our bank will accept a cheque in the currencies listed in the below table. It can be a bank draft or a personal cheque. For other currencies the payment from overseas will need to be made by telegraphic transfer.
For foreign bank drafts, the bank the funds are to be drawn from must be located in the country of the currency of the payment. If you are sending a personal foreign cheque, the amount must be in the same currency that the cheque is drawn in. We cannot process the payment if the cheque is in New Zealand dollars.
We'll credit the payment to your tax account in New Zealand dollars, using the exchange rate provided by our bankers on the day we bank the cheque. This rate could be different from the rate on the day you wrote the cheque, so you may need to allow for exchange fluctuations when writing your cheque.
| Accepted foreign currencies | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States dollar | USD | Pakistan rupee | PKR | |
| Pound sterling | GBP | Soloman Islands dollar | SBD | |
| Australian dollar | AUD | Swedish krona | SEK | |
| Canadian dollar | CAD | Singapore dollar | SGD | |
| Swiss franc | CHF | Thai baht | THB | |
| Danish krone | DKK | Tongan pa'anga | TOP | |
| Fijian dollar | FJD | Vanuatu vatu | VUV | |
| Hong Kong dollar | HKD | CFP franc | XPF | |
| Japanese yen | JPY | South African rand | ZAR | |
| Norwegian krone | NOK | Euro | EUR | |
This list is subject to change and is for the currencies accepted by our bankers at the time of printing.
Foreign postal orders or money orders
We can accept foreign postal orders or money orders as long as there are no restrictions about where they can be redeemed. For example, some foreign postal orders state that they can only be redeemed in the country of purchase. In this case you will need to pay by one of the alternative options previously mentioned.
Debit or credit card payments
You can make a debit or credit card payment through our online facility with a Visa or MasterCard credit card.
Currently this service is only available to student loan borrowers and child support paying parents.
From 1 July 2008, people who use a debit or credit card to make a student loan or child support payment will no longer incur a 2.49% bank convenience fee.
Make a debit or credit card payment now >
Date published: 01 Jul 2009
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