Software developers to advise Govt on better tax e-processes

Representatives of New Zealand’s software development industry met today in Wellington at the inaugural meeting of the Software Developers Working Group.

In his address to the Working Group, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne endorsed its role in advising Government and welcomed its establishment out of the Government’s recent Making Tax Easier consultation process.

A proposal in the consultation process was around making greater use of electronic communication between taxpayers and the department for routine tax compliance matters.

Mr Dunne said that as most businesses already kept all their financial information in a computer-based business accounting system it seemed to make sense to use the internet to simply pass routine tax information on to Inland Revenue directly rather than copying that information on to paper forms or entering it into a separate computer system.

“Driving compliance costs down and removing complexity from the tax system are ways that we can deliver gains for the economy,” he said.

“This is not something that the Government can do by itself.

“If this is to work, we need the expertise and insights of the private sector working with government,” Mr Dunne said.

Inland Revenue routinely works with a range of software developers and the Working Group comprised representatives from that industry.

He said that the objectives of this group were to explore a range of possibilities and work alongside Inland Revenue to help design a system which would meet the needs of businesses, software developers and Inland Revenue.

ENDS

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