No one likes the tax man. Not even his mum. But Dany Miller-Kareko is the modern face of the IRD, who’s out to convince Kiwis she’s here to help. James Borrowdale followed her around Auckland while she tried. If there was one place to prove that old adage wrong – the one about about the … Read more
She thought about walking away from tax, but couldn’t. Maria Slade finds Westpac’s tax guru Jo Sawden does it for the love of it. Jo Sawden loves tax. Accountancy’s most arcane branch certainly isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time, but for the head of tax at New Zealand’s third largest corporate taxpayer it is … Read more
Tax Heroes: It has paid billions in tax since 2003, but the NZ Super Fund’s head of tax John Payne says it sees tax as simply a return to the government. The New Zealand Super Fund was set up in 2003 to help pre-fund the future cost of universal superannuation in New Zealand, and it … Read more
No capital gains tax no problem? Not exactly – Tax Heroes has uncovered our biggest property players pay a much lower tax rate, Maria Slade reports. Whether New Zealand should introduce a capital gains tax is set to be almost as hot a topic in Labour’s first term as the prime minister’s pregnancy. While debate … Read more
Tax Heroes: We always hear about who is not paying tax, but who pays the most hasn’t been measured – until now. Maria Slade talks to the two Auckland professors behind the numbers of Tax Heroes. In the days of former prime minister Rob Muldoon you couldn’t get a first class flight out of the … Read more
Today we launch Tax Heroes, a project created in partnership with the IRD which aims to ‘invert the rich list’, and instead focus on the entities that contribute the most to New Zealand. Duncan Greive explains what it’s all about. Every July for 32 years the National Business Review has published its ‘Rich List’, a … Read more
Tax Heroes: We take a closer look at how much tax our 50 biggest companies paid in 2017. “Tax is love”: Read Duncan Greive’s introduction to our new Tax Heroes series here. Do our biggest businesses pay their fair share? This was the question confronting Auckland accounting professors Jilnaught Wong and Norman Wong. So they … Read more
The World Bank estimates New Zealand’s hidden economy at more than $20 billion. Michelle Duff meets the IRD investigators chasing down the cash. This is the first in a series on the heroes and villains of tax. Illustration by Toby Morris. When investigators arrived at the Auckland couple’s expansive property, it was a suburban sort … Read more