This section contains articles on a variety of current tax and business topics.

• 24 February 2008
  Article in NZ Lawyer re incorporation of law practices (PDF document - 2 pages - 122KB)

Some of the principles can also apply to accounting practices that have not yet incorporated.

• 13 December 2007
  Email to clients and colleagues (PDF document - 4 pages - 58KB)

  IRD - we're here to help.

• 18 December 2006
  Email to clients and contacts (PDF document - 2 pages - 42KB)

IRD agrees to process improvments.

• 8 December 2006
  Winning and Losing with IRD (PDF document - 2 pages - 89KB)

  Article published in the National Business Review.

• 30 November 2006
  NZICA Submission (PDF document - 30 pages - 685KB)

Submission on Penalties discussion document.

• November 2006
  IRD Admin Paper (PDF document - 10 pages - 64KB)

Paper presented to Conferenz conference Auckland and Wellington.

• November 2006
  Janet and John - Detailed Events (PDF document - 3 pages - 35KB)

Case study for the above conference.

• 17 October 2006
  Penalties Discussion Document (Word document - 42 pages - 288KB)

Government discussion document proposing reform and softening of the tax penalties regime.

• August 2006
  August 06 inappropriate use of IRD administrative procedures (PDF document - 4 pages - 29KB)

• June 2005
  Newsletter 29 June 2005 (PDF document - 3 pages - 103KB)

  This newsletter focuses on our experience with IRD application of penalties to taxpayer errors, requesting examples from members.

• 18 May 2005
  Letter Jeff Owens to CIR re penalties (PDF document - 4 pages - 83KB)
  
  This letter raises concerns in respect of IRD's application of the penalty for Unacceptable Tax Position.

• May 2005
  ICANZ Journal article: Unacceptable tax position – is it time for a legislative change?

  The attached article reinforces previous concerns in respect of the 2003 change from Unacceptable Interpretation to Unacceptable tax Position. In our view IRD should support legislative change as a matter of urgency, and in the interim encouraging a more lenient application by its staff. At a minimum temporary shortfalls must be removed from this regime, and there must be no penalty where a taxpayer has voluntarily disclosed an error. If it does not do so, then IRD is treating the penalties regime as a revenue gathering mechanism and in direct contradiction to the original design.

• June 2004
  Submission to the Finance and Expenditure Select Committee on Taxation (Annual Rates, Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2004 (Word document - 7 pages - 49KB)
  
  This submission also makes reference to problems with the IRD disputes regime, and also to IRD procedures where the tax legislation has unintended impact on taxpayers

• June 2004
  Surprise - Capital gains on NZ property can be taxed (Word document - 2 pages - 26KB)
  
  This article was published in the Dominion Post on 21 June 2004.
  

• September 2003
  Maintaining the relationship between IRD and your organisation (PDF document - 33 pages - 559KB)

This paper was prepared jointly with Richard Philp and Mark Bell of Inland Revenue, and presented at the LexisNexis Professional Development conference for Corporate Accountants – “The Inaugural Accountant’s Update” on 19 September 2003. Republished by permission of LexisNexis and the authors.

• August 2003
  Submission to The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee on Further Income Tax and Imputation Penalty Tax (Word document - 3 pages - 40KB)
  
  This submission also makes reference to the problem of penalties than are far in excess of an underlying shortfall

Newsletter
We are interested in hearing what kinds of information and topics you would like to see in a newsletter we are developing.

Please email your thoughts and contact details to newsletter@owenstax.com