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Sales Taxes & Tariffs
                       
Sales Taxes Other than G.S.T            
In general New Zealand does not have sales taxes other than the Goods and Services Tax (GST) of 12.5%. However certain items do still attract sales tax and/or a Tariff if imported.
  These are principally in the following areas;          
       
  • Petrol, Diesel and fuels taxes
  • Cigarette, Tobacco and Alcoholic beverages Taxes
If you are considering these or any products aligned to these categories you should talk to your Accountant  to see whether any Sales Tax applies. Also note that these products types also have special sales requirements.
Border Taxes or Tariffs            
It should be noted that a small range of products still attract a small level of tariff at the border from non Australasian countries. However these are not taxes and are continuing to reduce in line with WTO/Gatt Agreements. See our importing pages for more details
  The main product types covered by tariffs are;          
       
  • Cosmetics
  • Clothing & Textiles
  • Footwear
Tariff rates vary from 3% on Cosmetics up to a maximum of 12% on Clothing and Footwear
Note: There are no Tariffs applied for imports made in Australia, Singapore, Thailand, Chile, Brunei,China, Malaysia and most ASEAN countries under Free Trade Agreements in place and there are some special arrangements in existence for some pacific islands under specific assistance Trade Agreements. Other countries like the US, Peru, India, Gulf States, Mexico, Korea, Japan are looking to be added to the existing Free Trade Agreements or Closer Economic Partnerships in the near future under either bi-lateral or multi-lateral agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership.

Rules of origin do apply to all Trade Agreements but may vary from country to country in terms of the method of calculation and the exact thresholds. these should be checked individually.

It should be noted that with the existing agreements while most tariffs have already disappears some recent agreements may have a scale where the amount will move downwards quickly year by year until they reach zero.

                       
 
   

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