Special circumstances

There are a number of special circumstances which may affect your income equalisation scheme account.

Retirement

If an individual retires, any deposits are refunded and then included as income in the tax year the taxpayer retires.

A request can be made in writing to have the deposits allocated to the income year the deposits were originally made, in which case the refund will be income in those years.

The request must be received by the due date of the return in the year of retirement.

Bankruptcy

Any deposit held at the date we are notified of bankruptcy, including any excess of the maximum is refunded to the Official Assignee.

Any amount refunded to the Official Assignee is included as gross income derived by the taxpayer immediately before bankruptcy.

Liquidation

If a company goes into liquidation either by court order or voluntarily, any deposits held by us in the companies main account is refunded to the taxpayer as at the date of notification.

The refund is deemed to be income derived by the taxpayer immediately before the liquidation.

Death

If an individual dies, any deposits will be refunded to the trustee of their estate. In general, the refund is income of the individual and treated as derived by them immediately before they died.

However, the trustees can elect to have the refund of deposits made in an earlier accounting year to that in which the person died. In this case the refund will be income in the year allocated to.

Alternatively, the trustees can elect to allocate the deposits to a time not later than the 5 year expiry date of the deposit or the end of 3 years after the death of the taxpayer, whichever is the earlier. Income is derived by the trustee in the year the deposit is allocated.