Customers find it easy

Results show ratings of 4 or more out of 7 from our Customer Experience and Perceptions Survey, where 7 is ‘strongly agree’.

• 81% of customers found it easy to deal with Inland Revenue, compared to 77% in 2019-20.
• 82% of customers were satisfied with their last interaction with Inland Revenue overall, compared to 78% in 2019-20.
• 79% of customers agreed they found it easy to get the information they needed, compared to 77% in 2019-20.
• 82% of customers agreed they felt that the amount of time it took was acceptable, compared to 77% in 2019-20.
• 76% of customers agreed they felt no stress or frustration, compared to 73% in 2019-20.
• 85% of customers agreed they felt reassured they got it right, compared to 84% in 2019-20

Customer perceptions around knowing what to do and finding it easy have mostly increased in 2020-21, indicating that we’re supporting customers to get it right from the start, and they’re becoming familiar with how to use our services to do what they need to.

Customer time spent on tax compliance

Reducing compliance costs is one of the benefits of transformation we’re committed to delivering. We survey small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMEs) to estimate the time and cost of complying with tax requirements

• 27 hours is the median time small to medium-sized businesses spent on tax compliance activities.

We conduct our tax compliance survey regularly. However, to reduce the burden on businesses, as they were managing the impact of COVID-19, we delayed our 2020 survey until 2021. The results of the 2021 survey are yet to be finalised and will be included in the 2022 Annual Report.

The median time SMEs spend on compliance has reduced significantly since 2004. With the changes introduced by transformation, by 2023-24 we expect SMEs will spend 18 hours less on compliance than they did in 2013.

Customers successfully using digital channels to undertake activities

A digital revenue system means our customers can take care of their tax and any social policy in a way and at a time, that works for them. Millions of straight-forward transactions happen with no intervention from us, providing customers with certainty sooner. Digital services better meet the expectations of our customers to connect more easily and share information quickly

Returns filed digitally

• 98.2% of returns were filed digitally (income tax, GST and employment information).

Customers continue to shift to using digital channels to do what they need to, with paper filing now the exception. Around 99% of employment information is filed digitally - upfront checks help ensure correct information is entered into our system. This is providing employers with greater certainty and reduces effort for them.

Correspondence sent digitally

• 79.1% of correspondence sent by customers was sent digitally.

We encourage customers to use our digital channels. Customers are increasingly using our secure service, myIR, to do much of what they need to do themselves

Businesses using accounting or payroll software

As at 30 June 2021, 181,357 small-to-medium-sized enterprises and tax agents used business accounting or payroll software to manage their GST obligations. This compares with 136,936 for the previous year.

Customers setting up their own instalment arrangements

Customers can set up instalment arrangements themselves online. This year, 40.6% of instalment arrangements were set up automatically through myIR, compared to 37.5% last year.

Customers who had their income tax assessments and entitlements issued automatically

By automating the assessment process, we can now include customers who previously missed out on refunds they were entitled to or did not previously pay the right amount of tax.

• 2.9 million individual income tax customers had their 2021 income tax assessment issued automatically.