New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

New Zealand Case Law

Debt forgiveness

  • 23 Feb 2022

    THE SAINT JOHN’S COLLEGE TRUST BOARD [2022] NZHC 259

    Citation
    [2022] NZHC 259
    Court
    High Court

    The Court directed that it was proper and lawful for the Saint John's College Trust Board to forgive the Te Aute Trust Board's approximately $14.85 million debt because the trustees had formed the opinion; the decision was within their powers and charitable objects and one a reasonable body of properly instructed trustees could reach; any potential conflict from historical dual trusteeship did not vitiate the forgiveness decision because the dual trustees abstained and there was no suggestion of bad faith; interested church bodies endorsed the proposal and the Attorney‑General did not oppose…

  • 17 Dec 2019

    CIR v ROBERTS [2019] NZCA 654

    Citation
    [2019] NZCA 654
    Court
    Court of Appeal

    The Court held that, for s LD 3(1)(a) of the Income Tax Act 2007 as enacted for the years in issue, "monetary" and "money" are not confined to physical cash; a monetary gift may be constituted by a specific credit such as forgiveness of a debt because the statutory concept of payment can be satisfied by crediting/debiting accounts. Policy arguments about valuation and administration did not justify reading the provision narrowly contrary to its text and context, so forgiveness of debt to a registered charity qualified as a monetary gift for the tax credit.