Annual report - 2004 - Part 3
Adjudicating and ruling on the law from the 2004 Annual Report
The role of our Adjudication and Rulings group is to identify and apply the correct interpretation of the Inland Revenue Acts and other relevant laws while considering case law.
This year we focused on further building our people capability in this complex and highly technical area. Although our staff numbers have been slightly below full complement during the year, we have recruited to both entry-level and senior positions over the past few months. These senior positions include a new group manager, three senior tax counsel and a principal advisor. In addition, we have continued our professional training for both graduates and more experienced staff.
Our Rulings units produce binding rulings that provide clarity on the Commissioner's view of the law as administered by Inland Revenue. Although we did not receive our forecast number of rulings for the year, we completed 139 more than in 2003. Like last year we met all of our quality targets, and this year we also achieved all our timeliness targets.
Our Corporates group has also begun carrying out some rulings with their role forecast to increase in 2004-05. This will free up the Rulings Units to focus on the more difficult and contentious rulings, as well as the production of public rulings and statements.
Our Adjudication unit plays an integral part in resolving a number of the disputes that arise between taxpayers and Inland Revenue during the course of administering the tax laws. The function of the unit is to consider disputes independently of the audit function, to ensure consistency and impartiality in the application of the tax law.
During 2003-04, there were 67 adjudication cases, compared to 63 cases in 2002-03. Although all cases met the quality standards and were allocated within the required timeframes, we did not meet the targeted average time for completion of 16 weeks. This was due to a particularly complex project that involved 14 separate statements of position and referrals, which took 51 weeks to complete. The average of all other cases was just under 16 weeks.
Other pages in: Annual report - 2004 - Part 3
- Our compliance model from the 2004 Annual Report
- Making it easy to comply from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
- Making it easy to comply from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
- Tailored services meeting needs from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
- Tailored services meeting needs from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
- Focusing audits on long-term compliance from the 2004 Annual Report
- Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 1
- Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 2
- Managing debt and outstanding returns from the 2004 Annual Report - 3
- Using the full force of the law from the 2004 Annual Report
Date published: 15 Nov 2004
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