Commodity Levies Act 1990

Miscellaneous provisions

24: Offences

You could also call this:

"Breaking the rules about paying or collecting levies can lead to fines and is against the law"

Illustration for Commodity Levies Act 1990

If you avoid paying a levy you have to pay, you might commit an offence. You also commit an offence if you refuse to collect a levy, or if you do not pass it on as you should. If you do not keep proper records, or if you submit false information, you commit an offence.

If you break any of these rules, you can be fined up to $10,000. You have to follow the rules in the levy order, which includes things like issuing invoices and submitting statements. If you do not comply with a requirement made under section 17(1), you commit an offence.

If someone who works for you commits an offence while doing their job, you can also be considered to have committed the offence if you gave them permission or agreed to what they did.

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This page was last updated on 30 August 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM227354.

Topics:

Money and consumer rights > TaxesBusiness > Industry rules

23: Prohibition on obstruction, or

"Don't stop someone with a warrant from searching a place"

25: Annual report and statements, or

"Industry groups must report each year on how they spent levy money"

Part 2Miscellaneous provisions

24Offences

Where a person—
avoids or attempts without reasonable excuse to avoid paying any levy payable by that person under a levy order; or
refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to collect any levy required to be collected by that person under a levy order; or
refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to pass on or dispose of any levy collected by that person in the manner prescribed by a levy order; or
refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to issue an invoice to any other person in the manner prescribed by a levy order; or
fails to keep or properly maintain records or accounts of any leviable activity carried on by that person sufficient to satisfy the requirements of any levy order; or
refuses or fails without reasonable excuse to submit (within the time required) any statement or return required to be submitted by that person under a levy order; or
submits any statement or return required to be submitted by that person under a levy order that to that person's knowledge is false, incomplete, or misleading in a material particular; or
refuses or fails, without reasonable excuse, to comply with any requirement made under section 17(1),—

Any offence against this Act committed by any employee or agent in the course of employment or agency shall be deemed to have been also committed by the employee's or agent's employer or principal if it is proved that the act or omission constituting the offence occurred with the employer's or principal's authority, permission, or consent.

Notes

Section 24(1): amended, on 1 July 2013, by section 413 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2011 (2011 No 81).