IR won’t chase expats on cost of living cash

Inland Revenue says it won’t proactively chase Kiwis living overseas who may receive the Government’s cost of living payment in error.

The first instalment of the payment, a Budget sweetener put in place to help deal with rising inflation, is due to go out to about 2 million people today, and those eligible for it were sent emails and texts over the weekend.

The $350 payment is supposed to go to Kiwis who earned up to $70,000 last year, but they must live here. It will be paid in three instalments; today, then on September 1 and October 3.

But confusion abounded on social media yesterday among Kiwis overseas, after emails arrived from Inland Revenue to say they would be receiving it.

‘‘There must be an issue with their algorithm to determine who gets the payment because I’ve been in London for four years now,’’ one wrote on a UK-based Facebook group.

Stuff counted at least 10 others in a similar situation as the original poster.

An Inland Revenue spokesperson said it used the information it held at the time of making each payment, including addresses, bank accounts and tax residency status.

If someone has left the country and not told Inland Revenue, it would treat them as resident, the spokesperson said.

Kiwis who weren’t in paid work in New Zealand during the 2021-22 tax year could also receive the payment if they had income from bank interest. Recipients of Working for Families may also receive it.

Several overseas Kiwis have already vowed to pay it back, but Inland Revenue says it won’t necessarily go after those who don’t.

‘‘We’ll only apply resources to identify such cases, and to recover payments, when there has been fraudulent or wilfully misleading information provided,’’ the spokesperson said.

‘‘We’ll be able to use our usual debt recovery options, such as deductions from a person’s salary and wages, or their bank account.’’

The spokesperson said Inland Revenue was also aware there was a text scam circulating related to the payment, which CERT has warned about.

‘‘For emails, the easiest way to tell if an email is a scam is to hover over the address it has come from to check if that address includes ‘govt.nz’. If it does, it will be from us.’’