Whaitiri Meka: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWhaitiri Meka: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 10 May 2016. Volume:713;Page:10892. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MEKA WHAITIRI (Labour—Ikaroa-Rāwhiti): Tēnā koe Mr Speaker. E ngā mema o Te Whare nei tēnā tātou katoa. I am pleased to take a call on the third and final reading of the Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill. Just so that we can recap the purpose of the bill is to make amendments to the Student Loan Scheme Act 2011 the Income Tax Act 2007 the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985 and the Tax Administration Act 1994.There are three components of this bill which I would like to just briefly touch on in my contribution. The first one is student loan information. The bill intends to allow information on student loan borrowers living in Australia to be shared between the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and the Australian Taxation Office ensuring defaulters pay their outstanding loan balances. The provisions in the bill once incorporated into the law of both countries are intended to give IRD up-to-date contact details to track down defaulters. The provisions also under this part of the bill include streamlining the rules applying to borrowers who work overseas but are entitled to interest-free loans because they work for approved charitable organisations and standardising the treatment of over-deductions from a borrower’s salary or wages.In the Committee stage my colleague Stuart Nash made some very good points on this particular part of the bill. Ensuring timeliness of registration is critical for our students who are living overseas. The clock needs to be shortened so we are not paying undue interest when registered charities are being accepted. He made some very good points on that and I do hope that that has been picked up finally in the bill. The other part he talked about was the level of disclosure particularly around the charities. I guess the point that my colleague was trying to make given that “tax avoidance” and “tax havens” are terms that are being bandied around New Zealand was about ensuring that the level of disclosure for our charities is consistent with other tax laws. I do support him on that point.Moving to the other part of this bill I note that it highlights new property investment rule changes. The bill provides for a new withholding tax on sales of residential property by people who live overseas and go on to sell the property within 2 years of purchase. The proposed residential land withholding tax is intended to act as a collection mechanism to the brightline test that applies to gains from the sale of residential property purchased on or after 1 October 2015 and sold within 2 years. This test has been introduced by the Taxation (Bright-line Test for Residential Land) Act 2015.The tax will apply when the property being sold is located in New Zealand and defined as residential land under the brightline test provision and when the seller acquired the property on or after 1 October 2015 and owned the property for less than 2 years before selling it. The other part is about when the seller is an offshore person. The bill defines what is classified as an offshore person. It is a person or people who are not New Zealand citizens people who do not hold residence class visas and New Zealand citizens and residence class visa holders who have been away from New Zealand for a significant period of time—3 years in the case of New Zealand citizens.We support this bill but I want to say that unfortunately it is a lost opportunity. It is a glass half full. It may not be perfect but it is a start which is something we seem to hear constantly from that side of the House. We should have addressed those relationships of students who are living in the UK for example and of course the GST that we did not cover in terms of assisting small businesses. It is a bill that we support but like much of the legislation that that side of the House brings it does not address the real heart of helping small businesses. None the less it is my pleasure to say that we support the bill in its third and final reading. Thank you.