Inland Revenue has launched an advertising campaign aimed at helping small businesses understand how possible changes to the tax system may affect them, and giving them the opportunity to have their say.
The campaign, called Changing for You comprises press, online and radio advertising, all of which links to a website containing videos about the possible changes, and a channel for comment.
Inland Revenue marketing and communications manager, Andrew Stott, said it was very important for the Department to give its customers every opportunity to see how dealing with tax might change in the coming months and years.
“These will be the biggest changes for a generation and affect every business. For example, how easy it is to set up a business, file returns, and employ staff.
“When you’ve already entered information into your accounting system, why should you need to enter it again for us? If we already know the right tax code for your employees, why should you have to worry about them getting it wrong? If you’ve made a mistake in your returns, why can’t you just fix that online?
“These are all areas the changes will address,” he said.
Mr Stott said the Government was already running an effective series of consultations around the policy and law changes being planned to make IR’s transformation possible – under the Making Tax Simpler banner.
“But Changing for You is more about the coalface, what might change in the day-to-day life of business owners. It complements the policy consultation,” he said.
Mr Stott said Inland Revenue had invested $600,000 in producing and placing the ads across press, online and radio.
“That’s less than one dollar for every person registered for GST in this country. So given the importance and scale of the changes, we think it’s money well spent.
“And in terms of measures of success, we’ll be looking at awareness of the campaign among small businesses, at levels of agreement with what we’re doing in asking for their input, and the number of visits to the Changing for You website.”
The advertisements run from today until the end of September. The Changing for You website will continue beyond that with updates as plans take further shape.