Dunne Peter: Income Tax Bill — Second Reading 
Dunne Peter: Income Tax Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:641;Page:11218] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Revenue) 
: 
 I move  
That the Income Tax Bill be now read a second time 
. This bill is the culmination of 15 years’ work to make income tax easier for taxpayers to understand and to comply with their tax obligations. Work began following recommendations by the Valabh committee in the early 1990s which called for the—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Courtesy is contagious and we will all prosper if we give the speaker an opportunity to be heard. 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker. As I was saying work began following the recommendations of the Valabh committee which called for the Act to be progressively rewritten in plain language in order to make it more user-friendly. I acknowledge the early contribution of Arthur Valabh and his team to that process. 
Because of the sheer size and complexity of this task the project has been completed in four separate stages. The first stage was the reorganisation of the Income Tax Act 1976 which resulted in the enactment of the Income Tax Act 1994. The second stage focused on refining the structure of the Act and rewriting its core provisions. This was completed in 1996. The third stage the rewrite of Parts C to E of the Act was completed in 2004 and the bill currently before the House represents the fourth and final stage of the project. It contains the redraft of Parts F through to the end of the Act including the schedules. It re-enacts and consolidates Parts A to E and it renumbers various sections contained in those parts. Several small intended policy changes to the legislation are also included in the bill but these have been subject to public consultation. Once enacted the new Income Tax Act will apply to income derived from the 2008-09 income year. 
I should say that the overall aim of the project is to make income tax legislation easier to understand so that users can apply the rules generally without confusion. Where possible the language has been made more concise and archaic terms have been removed or replaced with more modern contemporary language. In addition some areas of the legislation have been consolidated to give greater clarity while other changes in the bill aim to improve the overall structure of the Act. Although the changes to the language and the structure of the bill are significant the overall intention of the Act and its meaning remains the same. 
When the Finance and Expenditure Committee reported the bill back to the House it made several recommendations. Those recommendations were largely aimed at clarifying certain terms in order to avoid confusion and ensuring that the policy intent of the bill was retained throughout. I thank the select committee for its work on this magnum opus for the fine effort it has done in coming to grips with the detail of the bill and for bringing us a step closer to those recommendations of the Valabh committee which now seem so many years ago. 
This has been a massive undertaking for everyone involved. I congratulate all of those who have been involved in this project over the years. In particular I single out Sir Ivor Richardson the advisory panel and the members of the rewrite team—the analysts the drafters and the technical reviewer—who have advised on rewritten and reviewed every section of the bill’s now 3041 pages. Not only is this one of the largest bills to come before the New Zealand Parliament but also it is one of the most significant. 
I think it is worth recording too that the completion of this project is another milestone for New Zealand. The Australian Government attempted a rewrite exercise. The complexity of the task meant that it gave up halfway through the process and Australia now has effectively two income tax Acts. The British Government spent 9 years coming to the conclusion that such an exercise was too difficult and complex to carry out. I think it is a tribute to all those who have been involved in this process in New Zealand that a little over a decade after the commencement of the project we are now seeing it brought to a conclusion through its passage through the final stages of this bill. It is with great pleasure that I now commend the Income Tax Bill to the House.