Whether you’re buying, selling, introducing new partners or investors, adding or subtracting assets, or signing almost any commercial contract, there will be tax implications. We’ve seen it countless times.
The costly mistake we see too often
As professional advisers, nothing concerns us more than clients who call AFTER they’ve completed transactions. Once action is taken, we can’t change the facts. What seemed like a brilliant deal suddenly becomes marginal—or worse—because tax consequences weren’t considered upfront.
Various taxes can apply, and they’re often significant. Unless your legal advisers specialise in tax (most don’t), they won’t provide the tax diligence these situations demand. Someone needs to ensure you get the right advice at the right time, before commitments become irreversible.
Planning a transaction without considering tax implications? Stop. Contact UHY Haines Norton and discuss how early tax planning transforms good deals into great outcomes.
Critical transaction scenarios requiring tax planning
Tax advice should be integral to transaction planning from the earliest stages. We provide specialist guidance across diverse transaction types including:
Asset Transactions and Business Transfers
Selling, buying, or exchanging assets or business components requires careful tax structuring to optimise outcomes for all parties whilst ensuring compliance with complex New Zealand tax legislation.
Ownership Structure Changes
Introducing new partners, shareholders, or unit holders—including family succession planning where parents transfer ownership to children—triggers significant tax implications that proper planning can optimise.
Entity Restructuring
Setting up new entities and transferring business components requires sophisticated tax planning to avoid unintended consequences whilst achieving strategic objectives.
Property Transactions
Property dealings that change ownership or alter physical characteristics often trigger multiple tax obligations that require careful coordination and timing consideration.
Asset Transfers and Gifts
Giving away assets, whether for succession planning or strategic purposes, involves complex tax implications that planning can minimise whilst achieving intended outcomes.
Rights Creation and Modification
Creating, changing, or relinquishing rights can trigger unexpected tax consequences that proper advice prevents, whilst supporting commercial objectives.
Value Exchange Arrangements
Receiving money or value in exchange for assets, services, or rights requires careful structuring to optimise tax outcomes whilst meeting commercial requirements.
The strategic value of early tax planning
Transaction Approach Optimisation
Understanding tax impacts enables strategic transaction structuring that benefits your position significantly more than generic approaches that ignore tax implications.
Price and Terms Enhancement
Knowing tax consequences may change acceptable pricing or terms, improving your negotiating position and overall transaction outcomes substantially.
Legal Documentation Integration
Early tax advice enables lawyers to draft documents appropriately from initial exchanges. Post-negotiation document changes often face resistance, whilst tax-optimised first drafts typically encounter less opposition.
Superior Post-Transaction Positioning
Proper tax planning ensures business structures and arrangements emerge from transactions better positioned for ongoing operations and future opportunities.
Irreversible Advantage Creation
Transaction tax benefits usually cannot be captured retrospectively—early planning creates advantages that post-completion advice cannot replicate.
The integration imperative
Transaction tax advisory works most effectively when integrated with broader transaction planning rather than treated as isolated compliance work. Our approach coordinates with legal, commercial, and strategic advisers to ensure tax planning supports rather than constrains your objectives.
This integration becomes particularly important in complex multi-party transactions where different participants face varying tax implications that require careful coordination for successful completion.
Common tax planning opportunities
Many transaction structures offer multiple tax-compliant approaches with dramatically different outcomes. Professional tax planning identifies these alternatives early enough to influence transaction design rather than discovering them after structures are finalised.
The difference between tax-planned and tax-ignored transactions often exceeds the cost of professional advice by substantial margins, making early engagement essential for value maximisation.
Why legal advisers need tax support
Legal advisers excel at commercial and legal risk management but rarely possess the specialist tax knowledge required for optimal transaction structuring. This creates gaps that expensive post-completion problems often fill.
Professional tax advisory bridges this gap, providing specialist expertise that complements legal advice whilst ensuring all aspects of transaction planning work together effectively.
The cost of tax neglect
Transactions completed without proper tax consideration frequently result in:
- Unexpected tax liabilities that reduce transaction value
- Suboptimal structures that create ongoing compliance burdens
- Missed opportunities for legitimate tax minimisation
- Legal documentation that fails to support tax-efficient outcomes
- Post-completion restructuring costs that could have been avoided
These consequences often exceed the cost of proper tax planning by significant margins, whilst delivering inferior outcomes that proper planning prevents.
Contact UHY Haines Norton to arrange a discussion about how our transaction tax advisory services can optimise your transaction outcomes whilst ensuring full compliance with New Zealand tax obligations.
