Helping you get it right: Inland Revenue's compliance focus 2012-13

Inland Revenue has launched Helping you get it right: Inland Revenue's compliance focus 2012-13 outlining the organisation's compliance priorities.

Commissioner Naomi Ferguson said that Inland Revenue has achieved excellent results in the compliance area over the past twelve months.

"We have identified over $135 million in audit discrepancies including the return of an additional $44 million as part of the Budget 2010 hidden economy funding. Our people made more than 2000 advisory visits to businesses to educate them on their tax obligations.

"We published our first set of 16 industry benchmarks earlier this year, which help businesses compare their performance with others in the same industry, and we are identifying arrangements through which personal income can be diverted following the outcome of the Penny and Hooper case. We are also refining our strategies to detect fraud and evasion involving charities.

"Our Student Loans Overseas-Based Borrowers initiative, launched in October 2010, continues to deliver good results with repayments totalling $27.4 million being made up to 30 June 2012. We have also targeted just over 200,000 customers in debt since July 2011 through various outbound calling campaign initiatives."

Ms Ferguson said that Inland Revenue is using increasingly sophisticated methods to help customers do the right thing and identify the small number of taxpayers deliberately operating outside of the tax rules.

"We continue to develop our range of electronic services to encourage more people to self-manage their tax affairs online, ensuring they have access to, and provide us with, timely and accurate information.

"We are able to identify businesses who have not met their obligations and individuals who claim false Child Support or Working for Families entitlements. We have also strengthened our information systems to help prevent identity fraud.

"We can match data provided by international partners and private organisations to identify those using offshore bank accounts and schemes to misrepresent how much they earn.

"This year's report shows how we are building on our successes from previous years and clearly indicates our continued focus in addressing compliance issues and influencing voluntary compliance. Inland Revenue remains committed to ensuring all taxpayers pay and receive their fair share and this enables us to collect the revenue needed to pay for services that are important to all New Zealanders, services such as hospitals, healthcare, education, and policing," Ms Ferguson said.

Read our compliance focus document:
Helping you get it right: Inland Revenue's compliance focus 2012-13