No. of Recommendations: 2
It's more complicated. New immigrants for the first 4 years are not taxed on foreign income. After that the FIF (Foreign Investment Funds) regime applies which in fact IS kind of a capital/dividends gains tax: Each year you choose to be taxed either
A) on the virtual (unrealised) difference between end and start of the (tax) year
or
B) on a set virtual dividend (usually 5%, though I think it was up to 7% before)
I was pretty startled to be told that if your equity then loses mark-to-market value YoY, you apparently cannot take that as a tax credit. But after realizing that there was no plausible way I could afford to get on a path to NZ permanent residency at my age, I abandoned that idea and went for Portugal. Pity, NZ was definitely the most beautiful country I have ever been to.
