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Social Security Act 2018

Administration - Reciprocity agreements with other countries - Debt recovery and information exchange

385: MSD may use mutual assistance provisions to exchange information

You could also call this:

“MSD can share information with other countries to help with social security”

If the government makes an agreement with another country to share information for social security reasons, the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) can use this agreement to exchange information about people with that country’s social security department.

MSD can give information they have about a person to the other country, and they can also receive information about a person from that country.

Sometimes, MSD might give the information they get from the other country to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue in New Zealand. They can do this to help figure out how much tax someone should pay or to find out if someone is cheating on their taxes.

When MSD shares or receives information this way, they have to follow certain rules from the Privacy Act 2020. These rules are there to make sure the information is used properly and people’s privacy is protected.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6783918.

Topics:
Government and voting > Government departments
Rights and equality > Privacy
Money and consumer rights > Taxes
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384: MSD may use mutual assistance provisions to recover debts, or

“MSD can collect money owed to other countries' social security systems”

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Part 6 Administration
Reciprocity agreements with other countries: Debt recovery and information exchange

385MSD may use mutual assistance provisions to exchange information

  1. This section applies if an order is made under section 380 in respect of a reciprocity agreement that contains a provision for the Governments of New Zealand and the other country to supply each other with information for social security purposes.

  2. MSD may supply any information in MSD’s possession about a person to, or receive information about a person from, the competent institution of the other country under, and subject to, the provision.

  3. MSD may from time to time, in accordance with arrangements made in an agreement with the Commissioner of Inland Revenue, supply any information received from the competent institution of the other country to the Commissioner for either or both of the following purposes:

  4. making an assessment of the tax due by any person under the taxation laws of the requesting party (which, in this subsection, means the party to whom information is supplied by the requested institution of the other party):
    1. detecting tax fraud or tax evasion under the laws of the requesting party:

      1. Sections 179, 180, and 182 to 185 of the Privacy Act 2020 apply in respect of the provision as if the provision were an authorised information matching programme (as that term is defined in section 177 of the Privacy Act 2020) and MSD were the only specified agency involved in that programme.

      Compare
      Notes
      • Section 385(4): replaced, on , by section 217 of the Privacy Act 2020 (2020 No 31).