Statement of Intent 2009-12: Part one - Introduction
Nature and scope of our functions
Inland Revenue is New Zealand 's principal revenue agency. As well as collecting taxes, we administer and deliver a range of social support programmes, working with other government agencies. We employ about 6,100 people and have offices in 17 locations throughout New Zealand.
Role and purpose
Our responsibilities fall into three areas:
Providing policy advice
We work with The Treasury to advise government on all aspects of tax policy and on social policy measures that interact with the tax system.
Collecting revenue
We assess and collect over 80% of core Crown revenue. We also collect several special-purpose duties and levies and administer unclaimed monies.
| 2003-04 Actual $million |
2004-05 Actual $million |
2005-06 Actual $million |
2006-07 Actual $million |
2007-08 Actual $million |
Change 2004-08 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Direct tax | 29,177 | 32,782 | 37,593 | 38,478 | 41,342 | 42% |
| Indirect tax | 8,818 | 9,220 | 9,578 | 10,092 | 9,911 | 12% |
| Total tax | 37,995 | 42,002 | 47,171 | 48,570 | 51,253 | 35% |
Administering social support programmes
Inland Revenue is responsible for the administration and delivery of:
- Working for families tax credits - we distribute entitlements to support families in work (the programme is jointly administered with the Ministry of Social Development).
- Child support - we have policy and service delivery responsibility for child support, acting as the intermediary between paying parents and custodial parents.
- Student loans - we collect loan repayments from borrowers (the programme is jointly administered with the Ministries of Education and Social Development).
- KiwiSaver - we are the central administrator of KiwiSaver, collecting payments and forwarding them to external scheme providers for investment.
- Paid parental leave - we deliver paid parental leave payments on behalf of the Department of Labour to parents who take leave from their job or business to care for a new baby.
Over the past five years major government initiatives have changed the scope or operation of virtually all of these programmes and reshaped Inland Revenue's service delivery and operational base. Figure 2 shows the growth in customer numbers for our social support programmes.
| 2003-04 (000) |
2004-05 (000) |
2005-06 (000) |
2006-07 (000) |
2007-08 (000) |
Change 2004-08 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Student loan borrowers | 418 | 445 | 470 | 499 | 530 | 27% |
| Child support (paying) | 141 | 175 | 172 | 174 | 173 | 23% |
| Working for families tax credits[2] | 69 | 88 | 159 | 190 | 198 | 187% |
| Paid parental leave | 16 | 19 | 20 | 25 | 26 | 63% |
| KiwiSaver members | - | - | - | - | 717[3] | - |
Scope of operations
Our Policy Advice Division advises the government (with The Treasury), drafts tax legislation, supports bills through the parliamentary process, negotiates New Zealand's network of double tax agreements and forecasts tax revenue.
Our Service Delivery business group has four main areas:
- Assistance - directly interacting with customers by providing services over the counter or by phone through our contact centres, by correspondence and electronic channels, and face-to-face advisory services in the community
- Customer and Product Innovation - identifying opportunities and developing solutions that improve programme administration and/or customer compliance
- Assurance - delivering the enforcement part of our compliance strategy through auditing, collecting overdue debt and returns, providing technical advice and identifying and managing risk
- Litigation Management - managing Inland Revenue's litigation.
Our Business Development and Systems business group manages our core business systems (including information technology), our design and project management processes, and high volume activities such as return and payment processing and routine customer correspondence.
Our Office of the Chief Tax Counsel:
- adjudicates on disputed assessments between the customer and the Commissioner
- delivers public and private binding rulings
- provides technical leadership and governance oversight
- provides leadership for technical training and development.
Our Corporate Services supports other business groups with services and advice on:
- the department's strategic and operational planning processes
- developing our people capability
- corporate operations (such as financial management, risk management and security, legal advice and communications).
Major legislation we administer
- Child Support Act 1991
- Estate and Gift Duties Act 1968
- Gaming Duties Act 1971
- Goods and Services Tax Act 1985
- Income Tax Act 1994
- Income Tax Act 2004
- Income Tax Act 2007
- Stamp and Cheque Duties Act 1971
- Student Loan Scheme Act 1992
- Tax Administration Act 1994
- Taxation Review Authorities Act 1994
- KiwiSaver Act 2006 Parts 1 to 3 and Schedule 3 and provisions in Part 5 as authorised by the Prime Minister. The Ministry of Economic Development administers Part 4 and Schedules 1 and 2 and provisions in Part 5 as authorised by the Prime Minister (refer to section 224 of the KiwiSaver Act).
- Aspects of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave) Act 2002 are administered by Inland Revenue under authority delegated (under section 71ZA of that Act) by the Chief Executive of the Department of Labour.
1 Direct tax relates to the economic action of the agents that bear it. The most common example is income tax. Indirect tax does not relate to the economic action of the agent, eg, GST.
2 Families receiving monthly or fortnightly payments.
3 This figure compares to an original forecast of 186,000 members at 30 June 2008.
Date published: 25 Jun 2009
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