Community-Wise Issue December 2006 (Community-Wise)

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Community-Wise - 2006

Community-Wise Issue December 2006

Seasons greetings
Child Support
Family assistance, student loans and personal tax
Changes to family assistance pay days over Christmas
Tax payments due 7 February
Planning ahead for 7 February
Contacting our liaison officers
Key dates

Seasons greetings

We would like to wish you and your families a happy and safe holiday season.

Should you need to contact us, our contact numbers and opening hours over the holiday season are shown.

In the meantime have a wonderful break and if you are travelling, travel safely. We look forward to catching up again in the New Year.

Child Support

Child support services will close for Christmas on 22 December and re-open again on 3 January 2007.

The phones will close from 4.30 pm on Friday 22 December 2006 and re-open again from 8 am on Wednesday 3 January 2007.

The Child Support phone number is 0800 221 221.

Family assistance, student loans and personal tax

On Friday 22 December our call centres are open from 8 am to 6 pm. All our call centres will be closed from Saturday 23 December to Tuesday 26 December. The phones will re-open for standard business hours (8.30 am to 5 pm) between Wednesday 27 December and Friday 29 December.

For the New Year's break, all call centres will be closed from Saturday 30 December until Wednesday 3 January 2007 when we resume our regular hours.

Family assistance	0800 227 773
Student loans	0800 377 778
Personal tax	0800 227 774

Changes to family assistance pay days over Christmas

As banks will be closed due to the statutory holidays over the Christmas break, the family assistance payments will be made a little earlier.

The weekly family assistance payment due to be made on Tuesday 26 December will be made on Friday 22 December.

The weekly and fortnightly payment due to be made on Tuesday 2 January 2007 will be made on Friday 29 December 2006.

The next weekly payment will be on Tuesday 9 January 2007.

The next fortnightly payment will be on Tuesday 16 January 2007.

Tax payments due 7 February

Income tax, student loan and family assistance payments are due on 7 February 2007 (unless you are using a tax agent). Customers with payments due will be sent a reminder letter in January 2007.

Customers should contact us as soon as possible to discuss alternative arrangements if they can't make these payments, disagree with the amount due, or wish to alter the details of an existing arrangement they have with us.

Payments can be made:

Online through their bank's website By cash or cheque at any Westpac branch
Using the payment slip attached to the reminder letter and posting a cheque to us (please don't post cash).

Interest and penalties will be charged on any outstanding payments from 8 February if no arrangement has been made.

There are three phone lines dedicated to the 7 February payments, open from 8 am to 8 pm Monday to Friday, and 9 am to 1 pm on Saturdays:

Business customers	0800 162 685
Personal customers	0800 162 684
Student loan customers	0800 162 689

Planning ahead for 7 February

If customers are unable to make tax payments in full by Wednesday 7 February, we recommend they contact us as soon as possible to discuss what options are available.

One option that may be available is setting up an arrangement to pay the tax bill off in instalments.

There are a few things that customers will need to consider before entering into an arrangement with us.

All returns must be up to date. If a customer has any outstanding returns they must be filed before an arrangement can be agreed to.
The arrangement will not cover any future debts.
Use of money interest is still charged at a rate of 13.08% and payable for the duration of the arrangement.
A late payment penalty of 1% (of the outstanding tax due) will be applied on the day after the due date
(8 February).

However, provided the terms of the arrangement are kept to there will be no further late payment penalties applied.

For arrangements made to cover outstanding student loan debt there will also be a monthly 2% penalty that appears on their student loan account. However if the terms of the arrangement are kept to then these penalties will be cancelled at the end.
If customers do not keep to the terms of the arrangement, eg filing returns on time, making agreed payments on time and keeping their current obligations up to date, they may default the arrangement and be liable for all the late payment penalties from the due date.

Customers who believe they will be unable to make the payment in full by the Wednesday 7 February 2007 and are considering this option should contact us by Monday 5 February 2007.

For more information about setting up an arrangement please phone:

Business customers	0800 162 685
Personal customers	0800 162 684
Student loan customers	0800 162 689

Contacting our liaison officers

If you would like to speak to one of our Community Liaison Officers or Social Policy Liaison Officers or if you would like them to come and talk with you (or your group), call us and ask for the CLO/SPLO in your area.

Location	SPLOs 0800 227 773	CLOs 0800 221 221
Whangarei	Luana Poata	Angela Pearson
Takapuna	Tangi Folau Nicola Sharp	Joseph Manu
Manukau	Kevin Mascarenhas Helen Lisiua	Paul Tuisaula
Hamilton	Moana Aperehama Fabienne Scintu	Chris Novak
Tauranga	Lorraine Morten	Karen Burton
Gisborne	Kylie Low	Danny Fong
Napier	Nerissa Taurima	Sonia Cooper
Rotorua	Anna Jones	Edward Nathan
New Plymouth	Jenny Charteris	Renee Hitchings
Palmerston North	Philippa McNae	Steph Martin
Wellington	Kaisara Ierome Brian Woolford	Tracey Taylor
Nelson	Margaret King	Rachael Hopkinson
Greymouth	Juliette Henry	-
Christchurch	Pip McArtney	Katie Collins
Timaru	Geoff Mayo	-
Dunedin	Vanessa MacDonald	Cindy Henry
Invercargill	Val Smith	Rhea Villaneuva

Key dates

Date	Event
31 December Student loans	The third instalment for non resident assessments is due for borrowers living overseas.
6 February Child Support	Notice of assessment for paying parents (based on their income over the last year) mailed out.
7 February Income tax Family assistance Student loans	End of year payments due for income tax, family assistance and student loans customers (without tax agent).
28 February Student loans	Student loans are transferred from Studylink to Inland Revenue (for courses completed before 31 December 2006). Letters are sent to borrowers in March giving full details.
Early March Family assistance	Family assistance details are automatically transferred to next tax year (1 April 2007 - 31 March 2008). Certificates of entitlement for 1 April 2007 - 31 March 2008 are sent to family assistance customers who receive weekly or fortnightly payments.
6 March Child Support	Notice of assessment for paying parents (based on their income over the last two years) mailed out.
7 March Student loans	Third instalment of student loan assessment due. Applies to borrowers who have a residual repayment obligation of over $1000 for previous tax year.
8 March Child Support	Notice of entitlement for custodians (telling them what they can expect to receive in the coming year) mailed out.
14 March Child Support	Employer deduction notice, including Work and Income benefit deduction notices, mailed out.
31 March Student loans	The fourth instalment for non-resident assessments is due for borrowers living overseas.