Tax Treatment of Carbon Income

This guide starts from one rule: units from a post-1989 forest are taxed as income when they are sold, not when they arrive, and the sale is zero-rated for GST. Units from a pre-1990 forest follow a different rule.

It goes on to explain how units are treated as trading stock, the difference between received and purchased units, ways to smooth income across tax years, what happens when units are gifted or surrendered, and how the ownership structure changes the tax bill.