If you're in prison for at least 13 weeks, you can fill out a form to stop paying child support or reduce your payment amount.
You need to apply while you're still in prison – whether in New Zealand or overseas. Home detention does not count as prison.
Your income also must be either:
- a prison allowance
- only from investment income, and less than the minimum child support amount for the year (1 April to 31 March), or less than $10 a week if you have a voluntary agreement.
If you get paid salary and wages through a work-to-release programme, you cannot get an exemption.
Read about the full requirements for getting an exemption.
About exemptions
Child support rates
Before you start
You'll need your:
- IRD number
- usual postal address from before prison, if you have one
- contact details
- expected investment and other income for the tax year (1 April to 31 March).
Download and fill in the form
You can complete this form online before printing. Make sure to save your details.
If you do not have a printer, contact us and we'll send you a paper form.
Fill in the form or ask someone to fill it out for you. You can get a prison officer to fill it in for you. The form will need an official stamp from the prison.
Sign the form and send it to us
Child Support
PO Box 39010
Wellington Mail Centre
Lower Hutt 5045
You can also call us or send us the form in myIR. See 'Other ways to do this' below for instructions.
You can also:
- call us to apply over the phone
- send us your completed form as a message in myIR.
Make sure you let us know the message is for child support. Attach your completed IR105 form and any supporting documents to the message.
You do not need to sign the form when sending it to us in myIR.
What happens next
We'll check if you meet the requirements for an exemption, then we’ll send you a letter saying if you got the exemption or not.
If you get the exemption, we’ll also send you a new notice of assessment showing you have nothing to pay for that time period.
If you do not get the exemption, we'll send you a letter telling you why.
We'll contact you if we need more information.
Exemption reviews
The receiving carer can ask us to review your exemption if they think you do not meet the requirements. If this happens, we may contact you for more information about your income or circumstances.
Your responsibilities
If you owe child support from before your exemption starts, you still need to pay this.
Contact us as soon as your situation changes and you start getting an income. We’ll help you set up a payment arrangement to get rid of the old overdue amounts.
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