This category is limited to the provision of services to help Ministers fulfil their responsibilities to Parliament and the New Zealand public, other than policy decision-making responsibilities, and to provide information and assistance to the public to make them aware of their obligations and entitlements.
What we do
We provide services and information to help taxpayers and other customers meet their payment obligations and receive payments they are entitled to and help Ministers fulfil their responsibilities to Parliament and the New Zealand public.
We provide certainty and clarity through public advice and guidance, private rulings and advice, dispute reviews and an internal escalation service for technical issues.
How we performed
IR continued to focus on supporting customers with their tax and social policy needs, prioritising the resolution of queries for customers who are likely to have the greatest need. Our voice and correspondence channels are managed together to deliver the best customer outcomes.
Customer demand volumes decreased slightly, dropping from 3.95 million interactions in 2023 to 3.68 million interactions in 2024. While key events such as individual income tax assessments drive high demand between March and June each year, the decrease in customer service volumes indicate that more customers are able to manage with self-service channels.
| Channel | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front of house visits | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Paper correspondence received | 0.5 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 |
| Attempted voice calls | 3.8 | 2.5 | 2.4 | 2.1 | 2.0 |
| Web message received | 1.4 | 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.4 | 1.4 |
We continued to provide certainty and clarity for customers, developing public advice and guidance on various issues, including:
- an explanation of when costs like interest, rates and property insurance are deductible when land is held, and whether the land being taxed on sale is relevant to deductibility
- guidance on the deductibility of costs incurred in configuring or customising a supplier’s application software in a software as a service arrangement
- help with the GST and income tax treatment of grants and subsidies, particularly for payments made by government
- guidance about how the GST grouping rules operate and help explaining which entities can form a GST group
- guidelines to assist with making research and development loss tax credit applications, and
- updated guidance explaining the taxation of trusts.
See here for information on our private rulings service, providing certainty for customers on specific tax positions, giving our interpretation on how the law applies in specific circumstances.
Making tax simpler collecting revenue efficiently
We also issued a General Article (GA 24/01) that concerned the increase in the trustee tax rate to 39% from 1 April 2024 and how we may view some taxpayer transactions and structural changes made in response to the change in tax rate. This area has received a lot of attention from taxpayers given the change in tax rate and so the item sets out specific situations where we may have concerns.
A relatively new type of product being provided are Technical Decision Summaries. These are summaries of applicable private rulings and adjudication decisions that have been made by the Tax Counsel Office. The identity of applicants and any sensitive information are removed. It’s early days, but our customers have responded very positively to these summaries. We think they are an important additional way to increase transparency around our interpretative decisions.
Performance measure results
This year, we achieved 4 out of 5 targets, similar to 2022–23 when we achieved 8 out of 9 targets.
| Performance measure | 2022-23 actual | 2023-24 target | 2023-24 actual | 2024-25 target |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Percentage of customers who agree they found it easy to get the information they needed1 | 72% |
70% | 72% (achieved) | 70% |
| Average speed to answer telephone calls | 4 minutes 47 seconds |
4 minutes 30 seconds or less | 4 minutes 18 seconds (achieved) | 4 minutes 30 seconds or less |
| Percentage of correspondence completed within 10 working days | New measure | 70% | 65.1% (not achieved) | 70% see here |
| Not achieved—We manage our voice and correspondence channels together, prioritising customers who are likely to have the greatest need to achieve the best overall customer experience within available resources. At the beginning of 2023–24, we were in a period of recovery following the 2023 high-demand season with significant volumes of work on hand, impacting our response times. | ||||
| Percentage of rulings reports, adjudication reports and public items that meet the applicable purpose, logic, alternatives, consultation, and practicality standards | 100% | 100% | 100% (achieved) | 100% |
| Percentage of public items, adjudication cases, taxpayer rulings and short process rulings completed within agreed timeframes. |
New measure | 90% | 97.5% (achieved) | 90% see here |
1Actual performance measured using a sample of the customer population from our Customer Experience and Perceptions Survey. The survey asks customers to rate their experiences on a 7-point scale. Results represent customers who gave a score of 5 or more. More information on the survey is provided here:
All targets are unaudited.
What it cost
| Actual 2023 ($000) | Actual 2024 ($000) | Unaudited revised budget 2024 ($000) | Unaudited budget 2024 ($000) | Unaudited forecast 2024 ($000) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | |||||
| Revenue from the Crown | $327,767 | $335,634 | $335,634 | $309,031 | $314,597 |
| Other revenue | $860 | $839 | $1,045 | $1,045 | $1,045 |
| Total Revenue | $328,627 | $336,473 | $336,679 | $310,076 | $315,642 |
| Total expenses | $312,978 | $326,456 | $336,679 | $310,076 | $315,642 |
| Net surplus/(deficit) | $15,649 | $10,017 | – | – | – |