Te kōwhiringa arowhānui Standard option

The standard option is based on your previous year’s residual income tax (RIT) plus 5%. It’s useful if your income is steady or increases over the next year.

If you use the standard option you’ll pay 3 equal instalments during the year. If you're registered for GST and file 6-monthly GST returns you'll only pay 2 instalments. You may have more tax to pay once you’ve filed your income tax return.

We’ll use the standard option for provisional tax unless you choose otherwise.

You can change from the standard option to AIM or the estimation option at any time, but you cannot change to the ratio option during the same year.

Extension of time to file your income tax return

You’ll know how much provisional tax to pay once you’ve filed your income tax return for the previous year.

If you have an extension of time to file your return, for example, if you have a tax agent, then your first provisional instalment may be due before you’ve filed your income tax return. In this situation, your provisional tax will be your residual income tax from 2 years ago plus 10%.

For more information, read our Provisional tax guide - IR289.