Glossary

Glossary for the Annual Report 2024
Term	Definition
Advance pricing agreements (APAs)	A co-operative approach to addressing transfer pricing compliance. APAs produce significant time and cost savings, and certainty of outcomes for both tax authorities and multinationals in comparison with adversarial audits. APAs encourage upfront taxpayer compliance and early resolution of potential disputes.
Appropriation	A parliamentary authorisation for the Government or an Office of Parliament to incur expenses or capital expenditure. Expenditure can only be incurred under an appropriation or other statutory authority.
Approved information-sharing agreement (AISA)	A tool that allows government agencies to provide efficient and effective public services through collaborating and sharing information, without intruding on people’s rights or exposing agencies to risk. Approved information sharing agreements are listed in Schedule 2 of the Privacy Act 2020. See: Office of the Privacy Commissioner \| Information/Data sharing
Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI)	Refers to the global Standard for Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information in Tax Matters, which aims to fight offshore tax evasion. AEOI involves financial institutions collecting details of financial accounts held by non-residents and passing that information to us so that we can then pass it on to the relevant country.
Automatically issued individual income tax assessment	We automatically calculate and issue income tax assessments for individual customers if we have all their income information (income from employment, investments such as bank deposits or savings interest or a benefit under an employment share scheme) for the tax year.
Bright-line rule	A rule that any profit on a residential property will be taxable if it is sold within a set period of time, the bright-line period, unless an exclusion or rollover relief applies.
Business Transformation	IR’s now completed programme to make tax and payments simpler, open and more certain for customers.
Cabinet	The group of Government Ministers who make the Government’s significant decisions. Cabinet is chaired by the Prime Minister.
Carbon Neutral Government Programme	A programme set up to accelerate the reduction of emissions within the public sector.
Child Support pass-on	From July 2023, when a liable parent makes a child support payment, it will be passed on to receiving carers on a sole parent rate of benefit instead of being used to pay the cost of providing the benefit.
Compliance intervention	A step or action taken to assist with compliance. This could range from a simple customer contact through to an audit, statutory dispute or prosecution.
COVID-19 support products	Payments introduced to support businesses and organisations that had a loss of revenue due to COVID-19. The Small Business Cashflow Scheme is a loan. The Resurgence Support Payment and COVID-19 Support Payment were grants.
Crown	All Ministers and all departments, the State as a whole.
Crypto-assets	Also known as crypto-currencies or virtual currencies, crypto-assets are treated as a form of property for tax purposes. What people make from selling, trading or exchanging crypto-assets is taxable.
Customer-centric	Putting our customer at the centre of everything we do. This gives us a better approach to designing new and existing services and guides us on where to focus effort and resources and ways to reach customers in an appropriate manner.
Digital Identity Services Trust Framework	The legal framework for digital identity services in New Zealand. It includes rules and regulations for how digital identity services that are accredited should work, protecting information and privacy.
Estimates of Appropriations	Detailed documents in which the Government sets out its spending plans for the coming financial year. The Estimates are presented to Parliament, which then approves them through an Appropriation Bill. (Full name: Estimates of Annual Appropriations for the Government of New Zealand.)
Gateway Services	Gateway Services are machine-to-machine APIs, web services and file transfers that support communication of tax and social policy information between IR, tax software, KiwiSaver schemes and other government departments as required. These highly secure services help ensure large-scale information transfer both automatically and on demand as need requires. Each software provider has, at their discretion, chosen which of the gateway services they will integrate with and offer to their customers. Tax intermediaries can use these gateway service offerings to file their clients' tax returns or use myIR.
Generic Tax Policy Process	The tax policy process that IR uses, which involves ensuring major tax initiatives are subject to public scrutiny at all stages of their development.
Global Anti-Base Erosion rules (GlOBE)	Rules that part of the OECD-led Two-Pillar Solution to address the tax challenges of the digitilisation of the economy and ensure large multinational enterprises pay a minimum level of tax on the income arising in each of the jurisdictions in which they operate. Read more at: How we develop tax policy \| Tax Policy
Integrity of the tax system	At all times, we need to make sure we are protecting the integrity of the tax system, which section 6(2) of the Tax Administration Act 1994 defines as follows: (2) Without limiting its meaning, the integrity of the tax system includes— Taxpayer perceptions of that integrity; and The rights of taxpayers to have their liability determined fairly, impartially, and according to law; and The rights of taxpayers to have their individual affairs kept confidential and treated with no greater or lesser favour than the tax affairs of other taxpayers; and The responsibilities of taxpayers to comply with the law; and The responsibilities of those administering the law to maintain the confidentiality of the affairs of taxpayers; and The responsibilities of those administering the law to do so fairly, impartially, and according to law.
Kaitakawaenga Māori	Kaitakawaenga Māori deliver IR services in a whānau, hapū and iwi centric way to ensure our Māori customers have the tools to self-manage their tax affairs whether they are an individual, or in business.
KiwiSaver Government Contribution	Government annual contribution towards KiwiSaver members’ retirement savings.
Multi-category appropriation (MCA)	A single appropriation made up of multiple categories (which can be different types of expenditure, including output expenses, other expenses and non-departmental capital expenditure) that all contribute to the same overarching purpose. Multi-category appropriations allow greater flexibility.
myIR	Our online customer service portal that enables customers to access and review their tax information online.
NABERSNZ	A system for rating the energy efficiency of office buildings.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)	Provides a forum in which the governments of 35 member countries can work together to share experiences and seek solutions to common problems. Promotes policies that will improve the economic and social wellbeing of people around the world. See: www.oecd.org
Public Finance Act	The purpose of the Public finance Act is to consolidate and amend the law governing the use of public financial resources. Refer to: Public Finance Act 1989
R&D Tax Incentive	A tax credit intended to incentivise businesses and individuals who perform R&D activities.
Resident withholding tax (RWT)	A tax on dividends or interest that is paid to New Zealand residents. The payer deducts RWT from this income.
Services Australia	Australian government agency that delivers services and payments on behalf of its government.
Small Business Cashflow Scheme	A loan available to eligible organisations and small to medium-sized businesses, including sole traders and the self-employed, if they have been adversely affected by COVID-19. Applications closed on 31 December 2023.
START	An acronym for Simplified Tax and Revenue Technology—our taxation and revenue system.
Tax and Social Policy Work Programme	A published document that sets out IR’s policy focus for a relevant period. The work programme follows the strategic direction set out in the Government's revenue strategy.
Voluntary compliance	The New Zealand tax system is based on voluntary compliance, which relies on taxpayers meeting their obligations under the tax laws, for example, filing tax returns and returning all income when it is due.
Voluntary disclosure	A disclosure that IR customers can make to tell us what is wrong with a tax returns before we find out in some other way. Any individual, business, trust or employer can make a voluntary disclosure.
Working for Families Tax Credits	Payments for families with dependent children aged 18 and under. The payments are to help parents raise families. The entitlements are based on people’s yearly family income and family circumstances. There is more about the 4 types of tax credits at About Working for Families (ird.govt.nz)