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You must file your return and pay any tax you owe before you can apply for us to waive a penalty.

Check if you meet the criteria

You need to tell us the reason for your late filing, non electronic filing or late payment.

Penalties can be waived because of:

  • situations beyond your control
  • a genuine error a ‘one off’ situation
  • incorrect advice from us.

If you have documents to support your reasons, include these with your application.

Send us your application

You can send us a message in myIR or call us.

Send us a message in myIR

Business - general questions

You can send your application and any supporting documents to:

Inland Revenue
PO Box 39050
Wellington Mail Centre
Lower Hutt 5045

What happens next

We'll make a decision and let you know if your application to waive the penalty has been accepted or declined. We'll decline your application if a return has not been filed or the tax has not been paid.

If you've already paid the penalty and we agree to waive it, then you'll have a credit.

Last updated: 29 Sep 2020
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