How does provisional tax work?

11 August 2023


Provisional tax payments are payments you need to make if you paid more than $5,000 tax in your last income tax return. Think of provisional tax as paying progress payments on next year’s income tax.


The amount you must pay relates to your expected profit for the year. In practical terms, the amount of provisional tax you’re expected to pay is based on the tax you were liable for in the previous year, often referred to as residual income tax (RIT).


Even if you are not required to pay provisional tax, you may still elect to do so, to spread your tax obligations over the year. This can help you manage cash flow and take away the pressure of paying a lump sum at the end of the year.


For a new business, the first-year provisional tax payment can be tough. You must pay last year’s income tax at the same time as the first instalment of next year’s provisional tax. There are a couple of ways we can help you reduce this pain.


If you are self-employed or a partner in a partnership you may be entitled to a discount of 6.7% on your first year’s income tax. This is to encourage you to pay tax early and relieve the financial strain before you must pay provisional tax for the first time.


Tax relief measures

To shrink compliance costs for small business taxpayers and allow them to retain cash for longer, there are some tax relief measures to help businesses cope with adverse events affecting provisional tax:

  • If you need to re-estimate your provisional tax because your income falls short of the estimate and provisional tax has been overpaid, it may be possible to arrange early refunds.
  • If you are unable to pay tax by the due date, Inland Revenue has discretion to write-off penalties and interest. As soon as you can, you should indicate when you can pay the tax, or request instalment arrangements. You may be eligible for a UOMI (use of money interest) write-off.


It’s important to keep your tax plan current. If circumstances change for your business, we need to adjust your plan. Keep us updated about what's happening in your business so we can work through the problem with you.

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