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Tax Administration Act 1994

Information, record-keeping, and returns - Commissioner’s powers to obtain information - Particular information demands and inquiries

17F: Commissioner may require information about offshore payments

You could also call this:

"The Commissioner can ask for details about money you sent overseas"

Illustration for Tax Administration Act 1994

The Commissioner can ask you for information about payments you made overseas. If you do not give the Commissioner the information they need within three months, they might not let you claim a deduction for that payment. You can dispute this decision, but only if you can show you gave the Commissioner the information they needed on time. The Commissioner can also stop you from using that information in a dispute about your tax, unless you provided it when they asked. They can do this if they do not think you gave them enough information. The Commissioner must tell you if they are going to stop you from using that information. An offshore payment is when you pay someone outside New Zealand, or someone who is associated with someone outside New Zealand. The Commissioner decides what an offshore payment is. If the Commissioner asks someone else for information about your offshore payments, they must also give you a copy of the request. The Commissioner must follow certain rules when asking for information and making decisions about your tax. They can give you a notice saying they do not think you provided enough information. You have the right to dispute the Commissioner's decisions, but you must follow the rules. You can find more information about disputing decisions under Part 8 or Part 8A.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS181087.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Taxes
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Part 3Information, record-keeping, and returns
Commissioner’s powers to obtain information: Particular information demands and inquiries

17FCommissioner may require information about offshore payments

  1. This section applies when—

  2. the Commissioner notifies a person in an information demand that they are required under section 17B to provide information relating to an offshore payment for which a deduction may be allowed; and
    1. the person fails to provide a response, or a sufficient response, to the information demand by the date that is 3 months after the information demand (the demand date).

      1. The Commissioner may disallow the deduction, in whole or in part, in the course of making an assessment, and the person who has the deduction (person A) may not dispute the assessment in proceedings under Part 8 or Part 8A unless they establish in the proceedings that a sufficient response to the information demand was provided within 3 months of the demand date, whether the response was provided by them or another person to whom an information demand was given.

      2. In relation to an assessment referred to in subsection (2), when the information demand was given to person A, or to another person (person B) with a copy provided to person A, the information is not admissible in proceedings under Part 8 or Part 8A in which a deduction for an offshore payment is at issue, except to the extent to which the evidence—

      3. is provided or identified in either person A or person B’s response to the information demand:
        1. is provided or identified in person A’s response to the copy of the information demand as described in subsection (6):
          1. is contained in other material in the possession of the Commissioner at the time the Commissioner issued the information demand and can reasonably be verified by the Commissioner.

            1. The rule against admissibility in subsection (3) applies only if the Commissioner gives person A a separate notice, before or at the time of making the assessment, stating that the Commissioner does not consider that either person A or person B has provided a sufficient response to the information demand.

            2. Subsection (3) does not apply to prevent the Commissioner from producing any evidence in any proceedings.

            3. When a notice under subsection (1), (3), or (4) is given to person B, a copy must be provided to person A. A notice or copy of a notice given by the Commissioner to a person in their capacity as an agent for a partnership or as a partner in a partnership is treated as a notice given to every partner in the partnership.

            4. For the purposes of this section, an offshore payment, for a person, means an amount of expenditure or loss incurred or purportedly incurred by them to—

            5. a person outside New Zealand; or
              1. a person, whether in or outside New Zealand, associated with, acting for or on behalf of, or in a fiduciary capacity in relation to, a person outside New Zealand; or
                1. a person in New Zealand who, in the opinion of the Commissioner, may in consequence of the expenditure or loss incurred by the taxpayer, whether or not in consequence of any other thing and whether or not as an immediate or eventual consequence, make a payment to—
                  1. a person outside New Zealand; or
                    1. a person in New Zealand making a payment as described in this paragraph.

                    Notes
                    • Section 17F: inserted, on , by section 10 of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2018–19, Modernising Tax Administration, and Remedial Matters) Act 2019 (2019 No 5).