U.S. - NZ Double Tax Agreement to be updated

The double tax agreement between the United States and New Zealand is to be updated in negotiations scheduled to take place in June, Finance Minister Michael Cullen and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne announced today.

"We will be updating the 25-year-old treaty to take account of developments in treaty practice generally. Resulting changes will be made through an amending protocol rather than through negotiation of a new treaty.

"The content of the protocol is obviously a matter for the negotiations. Nevertheless, we anticipate a number of technical improvements to the existing treaty, as well as possible changes to the non-resident withholding tax rates.

"Updating our double tax agreements with major trading partners is a priority for the government. The first round of renegotiating a new double tax agreement with Australia took place in early April, and further rounds are expected to take place later in the year.

"It is now the turn of our double tax agreement with the United States, which is expected to be updated in a single round of negotiations on 16 June.

"We are aware that the United States has a very heavy double tax agreement work programme, so its willingness to renegotiate the New Zealand treaty at this time demonstrates the strength of the very important relationship between our two countries," the Ministers said.