Stuff Digital Edition

Inland Revenue defends its staff

Debrin Foxcroft

Inland Revenue is defending its call centre staff against claims they provided the wrong information to pensioners, leading to end-of-year tax bills.

A spokeswoman for the tax department said that in the past few days some people had been concerned about receiving an unexpected tax bill.

‘‘We apologise for any instances where our processes have contributed to that concern.

‘‘The bills are correct based on the information provided to Inland Revenue,’’ she said.

‘‘A few people believe they have incorrectly changed their tax code based on a conversation with us. Our staff are well-trained to provide the right advice but sometimes there may be additional information we are not aware of.’’

Over the last week, a number of concerns have been raised by pensioners who have received significant tax bills.

Almost a dozen people contacted Stuff on Wednesday with more or less the same story.

They said they were pensioners who consulted Inland Revenue or Ministry of Social Development before starting a job, or claiming superannuation, to clarify which tax code they should use for their pension.

These people said they were advised to use tax code M, however that is only appropriate if someone’s main income is superannuation.

If a pensioner earns more from another source, such as a fulltime job, the superannuation becomes a secondary income source.

‘‘In a small number of cases, around 1000, Inland Revenue believed that someone receiving the pension had stopped their employment when perhaps they had not,’’ the spokeswoman said.

‘‘This was because of the information we received from their employer and led to the wrong tax code being used on their pension.

‘‘We apologise for that and are working to contact the people involved.’’

The spokeswoman said being on the wrong tax code did not mean a person would pay the wrong amount of tax but it did mean that at the end of the year they would be left with either a bill or a refund.

‘‘If you have received a bill you were not expecting, you can check how that was calculated in your myIR account on Inland Revenue’s website, ird.govt.nz,’’ she said.

‘‘Our staff are welltrained to provide the right advice.’’ Inland Revenue spokeswoman

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2021-06-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-18T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/282398402370216

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