BKW (ASX) Ann: JV Receives Approval to Develop Oakdale West

Originally posted by pseudonym1: ↑

There's potentially still some interest in doing that: tax deferred is tax in part saved. But once you deduct the lost franking credits it has to look pretty weak. Are you able to be more specific on the AU tax laws on this point? What if you buy a house in NZ and later sell it? You pay Australian CGT?

Certainly, given the glaring disparity between two economies which are otherwise so closely entwined, it's baffling that anyone invests ex-AU if they could do otherwise. Your answer suggests that perhaps, in fact, they can't. But I'd love to see the specifics which prevent this.

It's equally odd that Australians are not up in arms about the fact that their own assets are worth more in the hands of a foreigner (well, a kiwi, at least).

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NZ tax laws are fairly complex but from my research they have a few unique points. Firstly we were looking at owning NZ shares firtly and as it would be a company it would be NZ domiciled so would get the franking credits from NZ companies. We would own assets that were growth where little or no dividends are paid plus it would own international shares. They do have a complicated notional dividend process for USA but it didnt make that much of a difference. So if you owned Afterpay and it went from $12 to $26 you would not have CGT on the sale. No dividends so no implications in regard to franking credits. The disincentive in OZ is that you tend to hold onto APT as you would not be able to repurchase the same amount after cgt once sold. The NZ company would not pay dividends so in effect you would not have taxable income in OZ.
It would act like Bershire H ... build asset value.
As regards buying a house you are taxed on world wide assets and income so you are liable for cgt if its in your name and tax on income if you rent it out. I suppose you could put it into a company but that wasnt our intent. Our reason was that there is also a clause that allowed you to accept international rights offers without a prospectus being lodged - a quirk of NZ being small and having enabling legislation. Often in holding a UK stock we found that we didnt get the rights and thus it cost us. There are some requirements in regard to registering a company there but OZ company directors are okay.
Please note that this is my personal understanding and not professional advice, some of it may have changed or even be incorrect if I misunderstood the advice I got. Certainly I would not hold BKW there. It is an income stock with growth not a growth stock with little income.
Also remember if your intent is mainly to avoid tax then in fact the anti avoidance legislation would kick in as well. We actually wanted to own NZ companies and felt that holdings on the OZ register was a huge disadvantage. The CGT issue was a way to add other stocks but mostly international ones so that we could access our rights issues. The OZ shareholder in an nz company only pays tax when they dispose of the nz share and on any dividends hence not paying dividends means no tax here.