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Customs and Excise Act 2018

Administrative provisions - Disclosure of information - Disclosure to government agencies

313: Direct access to information for purposes of Child Support Act 1991

You could also call this:

"Helping get money owed for child support by sharing information"

Illustration for Customs and Excise Act 2018

The Inland Revenue Department needs to find people who have not paid their financial support debt. You might be wondering what a financial support debt is - it is money owed to the Commissioner for things like child support, or penalties and interest on that debt, as explained in the Child Support Act 1991. The Commissioner can look at a database to find these people and take action to get the money back.

The chief executive of Customs can let the Commissioner access the database if they agree to it in writing. When the Commissioner looks at the database, they can only search for information about people they are already interested in. They can look at when these people arrive or leave the country.

The Commissioner must make sure that only certain people can access the database. These people must have permission from the Commissioner to look at the database and use it. The Commissioner must also keep a record of who looks at the database, why they looked at it, and when they looked at it. If someone is in serious default, meaning they owe a lot of money and meet certain criteria agreed to by the Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner, the Commissioner can take action to get the money back.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM7039738.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > TaxesFamily and relationships > Children and parenting
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Part 5Administrative provisions
Disclosure of information: Disclosure to government agencies

313Direct access to information for purposes of Child Support Act 1991

  1. The purpose of this section is to facilitate access by the Inland Revenue Department to information stored in a database for the purpose of assisting the Commissioner to—

  2. locate any person who is in serious default in the payment of any financial support debt:
    1. take appropriate debt recovery action against that person.

      1. The chief executive of Customs may, for the purpose of this section, allow the Commissioner to access a database in accordance with a written agreement entered into by the chief executive and the Commissioner.

      2. In accessing a database for the purpose of this section, the Commissioner may search only for arrival and departure information relating to preselected persons who are of interest to the Commissioner.

      3. The Commissioner must take all reasonable steps to ensure that—

      4. only persons with appropriate powers delegated to them by the Commissioner—
        1. have access to the database; and
          1. use the database; and
          2. a record is kept of—
            1. every occasion on which persons access a database; and
              1. the reason for accessing the database; and
                1. the identity of the person who accessed the database; and
                2. every person who accesses a database for the purpose of this section complies with subsection (3).

                  1. In this section,—

                    financial support debt means an amount, owing to the Commissioner, of—

                    1. financial support (as that term is defined in section 2(1) of the Child Support Act 1991):
                      1. a penalty or interest under the Child Support Act 1991

                        serious default means the state of having an amount of financial support debt due and owing to the Commissioner of Inland Revenue and satisfying criteria agreed by the Commissioner and the Privacy Commissioner in consultation with the chief executive.

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