Steering the tax seminar in Cambridge were, from left, IRD Community Compliance Officer Helen Mackintosh; Webb & Wood Director Rollo Webb; IRD Community Compliance Officer Melanie Jeffrey; Webb & Wood Director Mike Wood; and People in Mind Principal Consultant LesleyAnn Thomas.
Around 45 local employers attended the February 13 free seminar aimed at helping ease them into an Inland Revenue shift to a new payday information filing system.
The seminar was organised by Webb & Wood Accountants in conjunction with People in Mind and Inland Revenue. It is one of a series of about 300 IRD seminars being held nationwide to get employers ready for the change; this was the first to be held in Cambridge.
Webb & Wood Director Rollo Webb said the company organised the seminar as a service to the community. “We felt it was important for people with payroll responsibilities to be aware of the changes coming up on April 1.”
IRD’s new payday information filing system has been available for use since April 2018, but the changes will become mandatory from April 1 this year, requiring employers to file their employment information every time they pay their staff. The intention is to streamline payroll processes to enable IRD to work more efficiently, and simplify the way employers file tax information related to their employees.
Seminar attendees heard from IRD Community Compliance officers Melanie Jeffrey and Helen Mackintosh that the changes would increase voluntary compliance, reduce IRD compliance costs, and make it easier to introduce policy changes. Over time, it will better integrate the tax system into business processes. It will also enable IRD to receive more timely and accurate information, which in turn will help IRD provide more certainty around an employee’s social entitlements, student loan repayments and Kiwisaver contributions.
Those attending were walked through details of the changes and provided with a printout of answers to around 140 questions that have been asked during previous seminars.
Businesses that have already done the preparation are able to go operational with the new system now. It was suggested that businesses ‘get in early’ if possible in order to access support and information as needed before the rush expected on April 1.
Local businesses were urged to access as much information as possible at this stage, talk to their accountant, liaise with their software provider around issues of compatibility, and to review and adapt their payroll processes.
More information on the new system is available at www.ird.govt.nz/paydayfiling.
