The Inland Revenue Department is testing the waters with a new tax evasion case, seeing if a handful of trans-Tasman companies have used select financial instruments to unfairly lower their tax obligations. The New Zealand Inland Revenue Department is currently engaged in several legal proceedings over allegations of tax evasion against the local subsidiaries of several Australian based companies. The accusations revolve around the use of "optional convertible notes" (OCN) to avoid New Zealand based tax liabilities. On September 20th Dr Moorad Choudhry, ... Read More

Following the recent Goods and Service Tax rate increase, the Inland revenue Department has issued fresh warning to anyone considering making illegitimate tax claims on property transactions, saying that the Department's ability to catch offenders has been greatly increased. On November 10th Martin Scott, Group Manager of Assurance at the IRD, revealed that the department now posses the tools necessary to monitor all GST claims surroundings property purchases. He commented on the capability, saying “…if someone thinks their activity might be overlooked in ... Read More

An Auckland based accountant has been sentenced to two and a half years of jail time, after being found guilty of committing or being connected to 74 charges of tax fraud and evasion. James Colin Raea has been a member of the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants for 12 years, in that time he has allegedly been personally involved in tax fraud worth NZD 312 600, and an additional NZD 864 049 through companies he was involved with. Recently, at the ... Read More

The legal action between the Inland revenue Department and two Christchurch surgeons is set to continue, after their tax dispute case was accepted to be seen in front of the New Zealand Supreme Court. Ian David Penny and Gary John Hooper’s application to appeal to take their "company structure" tax evasion case to the Supreme Court was approved on August 2nd. The action revolves around alleged tax evasion committed by the medical professionals through a controversial company structure which was claimed, by the ... Read More