Smith Lockwood: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
Smith Lockwood: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17365] 
Dr the Hon LOCKWOOD SMITH (National—Rodney) 
: 
 In speaking to Part 4 of the Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill I pick up where the Hon Richard Prebble left off in his contribution. New Zealand Governments—not just this Government—have just spent a lot of money on rewriting the Income Tax Act in language that people can understand. In the amendment bill going through its Committee stage tonight we have language that is extraordinarily difficult to understand. Mr Prebble was just focusing on clause 125 and the new unanimous clause 125(1B). I note that that refers to a section 8(4B). I draw the Minister’s attention to clause 140 “Supplies of services made before insertion of section 8(4B)”. That would imply that this bill is presumably inserting that section because if some previous legislation inserted that section it sure does not tell us. I looked back in the bill to try to find what the insertion of section 8(4B) is all about. When I look at clause 8—which would become section 8—I cannot find any insertion of section 8(4B). 
But then the subclauses under clause 140 refer to section 84B. I would like the Minister to assure the Chamber that there is no typographical error in this clause because it may be purely coincidental that we have in the one clause references both to section 8(4B) and to section 84B which has subsections numbered in brackets. It is difficult to understand exactly what is being done in this clause because I can find nothing in the bill that inserts section 8(4B). If it was inserted by some other legislation this clause should say so. How is anyone meant to understand what this clause means if the title of the clause “Supplies of services made before insertion of section 8(4B)” does not indicate what legislation inserted that section? I cannot see where this legislation inserts it. To me the clause is somewhat meaningless as it is currently written. 
What troubles me about this bill in its Committee stage tonight is that it is extraordinarily complex. There is a risk with this complex legislation. I would not mind betting that not many members of the select committee—I was not one of them—understood all this stuff. I would be prepared almost to bet my last dollar that not many of the members—certainly the Government members—understood all of it. I think that understanding is important if we are passing important tax laws—and Part 4 is as I understand it to do with amendments to the Goods and Services Tax Act which are hugely important. I just think we deserve further explanation from the Minister of what some of these clauses that are so difficult to understand exactly mean. The Chamber deserves that because the danger is that errors made in these clauses have huge consequences for people. 
Here we are talking about supplies of services made before a certain action and the insertion of a certain section and goodness knows what that means. It is businesses that are paying GST. By and large businesses do their own GST work and the Act needs to be pretty simple for them to understand. I do my own GST returns for my own business and goodness knows what some of these things mean. So I think it is only fair and reasonable that the Minister should explain to us what on earth “Supplies of services made before insertion of section 8(4B)” means and when that happened. It certainly does not appear to be happening in this legislation. If it was inserted by some previous legislation I ask the Minister where that is clarified. Presumably the previous legislation would simply contain section 8(4B). I think we are owed an explanation from the Minister.