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New Zealand Relaxes Visa Rules To Lure Digital Nomads (theguardian.com) 65

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
New Zealand has relaxed its visitor visa rules to attract so-called "digital nomads" in a bid to boost tourism and the economy. From a report: Visitor visas will now allow people to work remotely for a foreign employer while they are visiting New Zealand for up to 90 days. The visa can be extended up to nine months but visitors may need to pay tax during this time. Economic growth minister Nicola Willis said making it easier for digital nomads -- people who work remotely while travelling -- to work in New Zealand, will boost the country's appeal as a destination. The visa would extend to influencers, as long as they are being paid by an overseas company.
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New Zealand Relaxes Visa Rules To Lure Digital Nomads More

New Zealand Relaxes Visa Rules To Lure Digital Nomads

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  • Nice Place But Beware. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Virtucon ( 127420 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2025 @12:15PM (#65128013)

    I've vacationed there twice and have thought long and hard about becoming an expat but I can't stand sand flies [touristclassnz.com] either. Regular DEET-based products don't repel them very well at all. You have been warned.

    • Sig fits.

    • It's part of a treaty we signed in the early years. We leave each other alone on the condition they can eat as many tourists as they like, but only in sumer, and only on the east coast of the South Island.

      For the most part both sides adhere to the agreement.

      • For those of us who haven't read the fine print of the Treaty of Waitangi, it sounds like a fascinating document!

      • Despite the English introducing a lot of invasive species, a beautiful country. And it has Lucy Lawless.

        I'm kind of tired of Canadian winters, I'll have to think about a move. Sand flies can't be as bad as our black flies. Legend has it some people go into the backwoods and afterwards you can't even find bones. It ain't the bears and wolverines you need to worry about, it's the blackflies.

        • If you go at this time of year, the time difference can be awesome if your employer is on the west coast of N. America: three hours behind (but on the next day). I once did a summer in Melbourne (5 hours behind PT): I could catch my American colleagues before they went to lunch, and I had Mondays to myself with no interruptions. Unfortunately, this doesnâ(TM)t work so well for Europe-based people.

      • Damn sand flies chewed me up while climbing up to Franz Josef glacier. Who do I contact about reparations?!?

        Note: This was about six weeks prior to the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake.

        • The Spinoff [thespinoff.co.nz] has an amusing and typically self-deprecating guide as to where to Nomad in Aotearoa.

          Good intro at least to the local humour if you are even considering it.

          On Fiordland and sandflies specifically, it notes:

          [sandflies] will eat you alive and fly into your eyes. They will find any way to get you, including going through the vents of bathroom extraction fans. Oh, and there’s also alpine parrots that would love to take apart your laptop.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      But they're free food, lots of protein. Just rig up a DIY electric catcher net. (I personally don't like their taste, but some do.)

    • But what about the Covid camps? Are those still a thing?

      • Yeah, their politics can haz the dumb, just like any other place. It doesn't detract though from the beauty or the earthquakes.

    • I have been eaten alive by sandflies in Massachusetts... not everywhere there, but a few places!
    • Been there in the summer, in a campervan. I was very glad that sand flies seem to be ultra dumb - they're incredibly easy to kill when stationary. Outside somehow it never was an issue. That was over a month, exploring the entire east side of both islands.

    • So that's why New Zealand produces such good dinghy sailors... they are just trying to stay away from the sand flies.

      • Few things are worse than getting caught in a dead lull for hours while being attacked by biting flies. I don't know what flies are doing so far out to sea but when the wind dies, there they are, out for blood.

    • As a Kiwi, sand flies aren't everywhere, but the worst place I've found for them in NZ was Haast on the west coast.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      The presence of sand flies is very much depend on where you are. I live near the bottom of the North Island about 8km from the beach and never see them. They were never a problem when I lived in Auckland. For me it was only really when at the beach that they might be a problem, and even then only sometimes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      I've vacationed there twice and have thought long and hard about becoming an expat but I can't stand sand flies [touristclassnz.com] either. Regular DEET-based products don't repel them very well at all. You have been warned.

      Deet is for repelling mosquitos rather than flies.

      And Un Zud isn't nearly as bad as Australia... one thing I have not missed by moving to the UK are the bloody flies.

  • Why tax them? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Baron_Yam ( 643147 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2025 @12:39PM (#65128087)

    Every bit of currency a digital nomad spends in your country is money entering your economy. Make sure they have their own health insurance, but tax? You're already winning, don't get greedy.

    • This is the same argument for eliminating the personal income tax altogether.

      The counterargument is government is a parasite and will kill you, if necessary, to steal your money, so they don't need to think about maximizing overall wealth or even tax revenues.

      The US government had the largest surpluses prior to the personal income tax. Smart administrations built parks, canals, and roads. Dumb ones started wars.

    • Only taxing after 9 months, because they probably want to encourage the nomads to be nomadic.

    • Only after extending past 3 months, presumably seeking a balance with the rental market. i.e. You've probably heard about the backlash from locals against short-stay AirBNB in places like Barcelona.

    • International tax treaties. Once you are in a place for 6 months you become a tax resident. Same thing happening in Thailand. Now to avoid the tax man you need to stay in places shorter times.

      For some nomads I assume they do it more to avoid the hassle of trying to figure out how to file your taxes in different places, but I imagine most are doing it to evade taxation.

      • Ahh. From an accounting perspective you are a human within a political boundary wherever you go, might as well assign you to the one you spend most of your year in.

        From a taxation standpoint, I'm not so sure it makes sense. Sure, you'd lose the tax income, but again, you've got this financial faucet draining wealth from another economy into yours as the nomad pays for accomodations and food etc.. That's worth something.

        • The problem just goes back to fairness; why does a nomad not pay taxes when a resident does? Why does a "superficial" tourist evade the taxes of their home country?

          I've lived as an [US citizen] expat before and financially it was great... but extremely complicated. It gets even more complicated with nontraditional income. I tried to set up a business in Thailand to be legal... which cost me $6k in lawyer's fees and would cost an additional $3-5k per year for "accountants." Gave up and moved back to the U

          • > why does a nomad not pay taxes when a resident does?

            Cash influx. Same reason tourists don't pay income tax even as they're collecting vacation pay - they earned and are paid in a different country.

            The digital nomad programs popping up everywhere would tend to indicate economists think that's worth the lost tax revenue.

          • I imagine in Thailand the local gangster tax makes it difficult for an expat to run a business.

    • Every bit of money spent by residents is money entering the economy. Residents pay tax to fund public services and infrastructure. A nomad living in the country for months is using many of those services and infrastructure. Our health system is funded by taxes; if you get sick and aren't contributing by paying taxes, then why should you get access for free?

      • The difference is that a resident is recycling money already circulating in the local economy. A digital nomad is injecting money from an external source.

        • Probably not worth arguing the difference - there are plenty of NZ people working for offshore companies and bringing money into the local economy, and paying tax locally. The digital nomad really just appears to be freeloading on services and infrastructure paid for by taxpayers. How much money are they really going to contribute and how many of them would be needed to make a difference to the economy? Great if you enjoy travel, but not really a great headline policy from a clueless government.
      • Presumably the tourism goes both ways - there are Kiwis touring the USA too.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ukoda ( 537183 )
      A decade or two back we simplified our tax system. Since then the tax department has been pretty reasonable to deal with. Under this scheme the need to pay tax is likely to be based on a income threshold and may be self declared. The details will be in the rules. There is a surprising amount of trust in people by our tax system. Assume they use some level of automation to flag significant differences between what is declared and what they can see from other sources and they focus their staff on the big

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        I suppose you won't be surprised to hear that in the Untied States the Congress declared that people cheating to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which only the very poorest families qualify for, to be the top priority for the tax authorities.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ukoda ( 537183 )
          Yea, not surprised. I was surprised when I first heard US citizens still has to do a US tax return even when living in another country. If you leave NZ to work in another country for a few years you don't have to do a tax return in NZ.

          Actually if all your income has already had tax taken from it, as is normal for people working as a regular employee, then you don't have to do a tax return unless specifically requested. The tax department will simply used the data from your employer and send you a refu

    • On the flip side, you might be able to exempt yourself from taxes back home, or use a tax treaty to reduce the liability. Itâ(TM)s very common for countries to demand taxes after a certain period of time, e.g. after six months. Tax residency is different to immigration residency too. Talk to an expert though.

    • This is about not taxing them.
      It means you can come here on a visitor visa and continue to work remotely for your non-NZ employer without worrying about working visas and tax.

  • from across the ditch...

  • Full immigration amendment (Score:5, Informative)

    by Kelerei ( 2619511 ) on Wednesday January 29, 2025 @02:04PM (#65128377)

    For those interested, the full amendment to immigration instructions may be found in Amendment Circular 2025-02 [immigration.govt.nz].

    A few things worth pointing out:

    1. 1. This does apply to those nationalities that can travel to New Zealand visa-waiver (holding an Electronic Travel Authority) and that can apply for a Visitor Visa at the border.
    2. 2. Remote work is not in itself a lawful reason to visit New Zealand and needs to be combined with a lawful activity that one may do on a Visitor Visa (e.g. tourism, visiting friends and family).
    3. 3. Normal Visitor Visa rules continue to apply: one must have sufficient funds to support themselves (NZ$1000 per month, or NZ$400 if accomodation is prepaid) and an outward ticket to a country that one has a right to enter, and must be prepared to show this evidence to an immigration officer at the border if requested. The outward ticket part is usually checked by your airline when checking in for your flight.
    4. 4. Social media influencers need to be particularly careful. If they are promoting an activity, event or product for gain or reward from a New Zealand business or person in New Zealand, this falls outside of the definition of "remote work" and they would need a Work Visa. See: that "IShowSpeed" idiot that did just that [nzherald.co.nz] and found himself on the wrong end of a deportation liability notice.

    • They're serious enough about point 2 to include it, but I'm very curious as to how they'd monitor or enforce it.

      If I pop down to NZ for six months, spend my regular work week telecommuting, and never visit a zoo or tourist trap... just living there for that period would be tourism for me. Eating at the local restaurants, shopping at the local grocery stores, chatting with the occasional person... stuff I'd do here would still be newish just doing it while in a slightly different culture.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kiore ( 734594 )
        If the immigration officer at the border is suspicious they may ask what you are planning to see, otherwise nobody will care. Before flying in, spend an hour researching the top 10 or 20 tourist attractions close to the areas you are flying into & out of and print off some kind of itinerary to show the immigration officer if asked. Nobody will know if you really did go into the Auckland museum or the National art gallery.

      • Itâ(TM)s a beautiful country, do some research and have some flattering answers ready if the officer at the border asks questions about places you want to visit or wines you want to sample. It wonâ(TM)t be as difficult as visiting the US, but do make sure you donâ(TM)t come with so much stuff that you look like youâ(TM)re moving permanently.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      So no route to permanent residence?

      The issue with these kinds of visas is that you aren't able to build up things like a pension or buy property. It's not so bad if you can save significant amounts of money for when you go home, but NZ isn't a cheap country and there is always the risk that you meet someone and want to stay.

  • Somebody told us DAYS ago.
    How about reading what's already posted first?

  • The Kiwis have proven on *multiple* occasions to be utterly insane when it comes to anything tech realted.

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