Inland Revenue (IR) will soon start to send out tax assessments to salary and wage earners in New Zealand.
And while people are looking out for that, they also need to watch out for scammers trying to rip people off.
Tax assessments
Individual Income Tax Assessments will go out in several large batches, starting at the beginning of June and going until the end of July.
In 2025, 3.63 million taxpayers received their end of year tax assessments automatically, with the bulk of assessments – 2.1 million – released over just two weekends.
2.37 million customers received refunds and 337,000 had tax bills to pay. Last year more than 1 million refunds were under $20.
IR expects to send around the same number out this year. If someone has paid too much tax they have a refund, and IR will automatically pay it in to their bank account at the same time. If there is a tax bill to pay, people have until 7 Feb or April to pay this.
More information is available online at End of tax year: know what to do.
These are automatic assessments only and don't include taxpayers who have to file IR3 returns separately.
Scammers
Scammers know when IR sends out these assessments and each year increase their attempts to rip off Kiwis. So, we’re warning taxpayers to be extra vigilant and watch out for scammers.
Scammers want to trick people into giving out personal information, like credit card details.
Some helpful tips
- Inland Revenue will only pay refunds directly into the bank account on record and will only ask people to log in to their myIR account by going directly to www.ird.govt.nz without using a link. It’s always safer to type in the address directly to your web browser and navigate from there.
- Inland Revenue will ask for bank account details if they don’t have them, but importantly, will always ask people to provide these in a secure way – using their myIR account or through the call centre (0800 257 777).
- Scammers often try to create a sense of urgency and claim the bill has to be paid immediately but the reality is that taxpayers have until February next year to pay an income tax bill.
- Inland Revenue will never put the dollar amount of a refund in an email or text message and will not ask for your credit or debit card details in order to pay a refund. IR never ask you to reply to an email or text message to provide your bank account details.
- Inland Revenue will never speak to customers threateningly.
- Make sure you have two-step verification set up on your myIR account https://www.ird.govt.nz/myir-help/logging-in/two-step-verification/set-up.
For more information about scams visit www.ird.govt.nz/managing-my-tax/scams/signs-of-a-scam.
If you think you have received a scam forward it to [email protected].