Chapter 1 - Introduction

In November 2015, the Government released the fourth document in a series of discussion documents for public consultation planned for the next few years to support consultation on the Government’s proposals for modernising and simplifying tax and social policy administration in New Zealand.

The fourth consultation, Making Tax Simpler - Better administration of PAYE and GST (the discussion document) outlined proposals to design digital services for PAYE and GST that will integrate tax requirements into tasks that people would already be doing as part of running their business, such as running their payroll.

An online forum, makingtaxsimpler.ird.govt.nz, provided the opportunity for the public to submit comments online and answer three opinion polls linked to specific questions. Written submissions were also received through the normal submission process. Over 1000 online comments were received as well as 87 written submissions.

This document summarises the main themes from both the online consultation and written submissions. The comments quoted in the summaries are representative examples of the comments received and are quoted as supplied, apart from the correction of typographical errors. It also sets out the results from the opinion poll questions for some of the proposals. The summary is organised by the chapter headings used in the discussion document. The submissions received were generally supportive of the overall direction of the document but highlighted concerns or issues that would need to be addressed. Most submitters did not support payday remittance of PAYE and other deductions or an electronic filing threshold for GST. Also the theme that “one size does not fit all” was evident from the submissions and online comments.