New Zealand among easiest countries for paying taxes - PwC and The World Bank Group

The Paying Taxes 2017 report by The World Bank Group and PwC puts New Zealand well ahead of the global average and our neighbours in respect of businesses dealing with their tax obligations.

Paying Taxes 2017 is a study that investigates and compares tax regimes across 190 economies worldwide, ranking them according to the relative ease of paying taxes for business. This year marks a major extension of the study as it includes the tax audit and dispute processes for the first time. This has had a very significant impact on the results for New Zealand, moving our ranking from 22 up to 11.

Geof Nightingale, PwC Partner and National Financial Advisory Services Leader says:
“The ability to do business and pay taxes in New Zealand is world class and the Inland Revenue’s business transformation project will continue to simplify processes and further improve our business-friendly tax system.”

“With the extension of the survey to the audit and dispute process, we get a better view of the entire tax process – from filing the business’ GST and income tax returns to completing an audit (if needed). It’s good to see that NZ is close to an almost perfect score with 96.9 (where 100 is the best score). We’re ahead of Australia (95.4) as well as the UK (87.4) and that’s a great achievement and an advantage for businesses in NZ.”

NZ also ranks as the number one country in terms of ease of doing business, among 190 economies.

In most economies, filing a tax return with the tax authority is a long process that does not imply acceptance of the final tax liability. The challenges often start after the tax return has been filed.

Post-filing processes - such as claiming a GST refund, undergoing a tax audit or appealing a tax assessment - can be the most challenging interactions that a business has with a tax authority. Businesses might have to invest more time and effort into the processes occurring after filing of tax returns than just into the regular tax compliance procedures.

“In NZ, the process is seen as relatively efficient, fair and transparent. While this is good news, Inland Revenue’s ongoing efforts to transform the tax system and improve the experience even more should continue to be pursued by the Government,” says Mr Nightingale.

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