What is a Commissioner review?
What is a Commissioner Review?
The Commissioner of Inland Revenue may decide to review an assessment if an investigation into a paying parent's financial affairs shows that their assessment doesn't accurately reflect their ability to provide financial support to their children. This is called a Commissioner review or Commissioner initiated administrative review.
A Commissioner review can only be started by Child Support and consists of two stages:
Stage one Child support works with the paying parent to decide whether or not a Commissioner review will go ahead. A decision will be made to either not proceed with the review, or proceed and go to stage two.
Stage two The paying parent is told that the review is going ahead and invited to provide further information. The custodian is given the opportunity to take part in, or stop, the review.
Child Support organises the review process, but the actual review is done by an independent person contracted to Inland Revenue. This person is called the review officer. Review officers are experienced in law and follow precedents set by past court cases
In deciding whether to change an assessment, the review officer must consider if:
- special circumstances exist for the income, earning capacity, property and financial resources of either parent or the child (or children), and
- a change of the assessment would be just and fair for the child, paying parent, and custodian, and
- a change would be otherwise appropriate.
When stage two starts the paying parent is asked to provide further details of their situation. Any information (including financial) they provide from this point on is passed on to the custodian if they have elected to take part in the review. Any information (including financial) the custodian provides for the review is also passed on to the paying parent.
This swapping of information is done:
- so both people know all the information the review officer will be considering, and
- so each can respond to the other's details.
You can find more information on Commissioner reviews in our booklet Helping you to understand child support reviews (IR175).
Date published: 26 Sep 2006
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