Bishop Chris: Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBishop Chris: Taxation (Transformation: First Phase Simplification and Other Measures) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 13 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7165. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS BISHOP (National): I want at the start of my speech to mount a staunch defence of my friend and colleague David Bennett. David Bennett is a superb chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee a man who has defeated Labour’s best talent over the years: Cliff Allen; Sehai Orgad; Sue Moroney; Dianne Yates a sitting member. No man would rise to the heights that David Bennett has risen in this House if it was not for the talent of defeating such luminaries of the Labour Party as Sue Moroney and Dianne Yates. He does a superb job as chair of the committee as Mr Robertson well knows and I take his remarks as tongue-in-cheek remarks as they were no doubt intended.I am looking forward to examining this bill in the Finance and Expenditure Committee because quite seriously it is an important measure that the Government is advancing: to make our tax system simpler and easier to navigate. We have a very good tax system in New Zealand. It is broad-based. It is of a relatively low rate—probably too high but a relatively low rate. It is a broad-based system that has rightly won plaudits around the world for its navigability its simplicity and the way in which it can be easily used by people.We have an excellent tax system but that does not mean we should stand still and congratulate ourselves all the time on what a wonderful system it is. We need to keep up to date and particularly we need to modernise the tax system. That is exactly what the Business Transformation programme that the Inland Revenue Department is undertaking is all about. On the Finance and Expenditure Committee we are keeping a watchful eye on that programme which is being overseen by Todd McClay. We are going to make sure on that committee that the very large programme of change that the Inland Revenue Department will be undertaking over the next 5 to 7 years is implemented well because New Zealanders deserve a well-functioning tax system.Just in my brief remarks I want to point to a couple of things that I am particularly interested in in this bill. It is a very wide-ranging bill; it is an omnibus bill that affects a number of Acts most notably the Income Tax Act 2007. But I am particularly interested—and I know people watching out there at home will be interested—in the amendments that the bill makes around tax refunds because people will know that at the moment there is a reasonably cumbersome process that exists around getting automatic tax refunds. What this bill does is it proposes an amendment to allow earlier tax refunds based on personal tax summaries that meet the automatic refund threshold; reducing the waiting time from 30 to 15 days halving the waiting time; and increasing the threshold for automatic refunds from $200 to $600. The advice that is before the House is that this will help approximately 400000 people per year to benefit from these changes.It is a minor and small amendment to a variety of legislation to make that happen but actually it will have a real effect on the day-to-day lives of New Zealanders people who pay secondary tax people who for whatever reason pay at a higher rate of tax than they otherwise should do throughout the course of the year. I remember as a student often getting a tax refund for a variety of different reasons and it does make a difference receiving a bit of money back at the end of the financial tax year every year. Adjusting this legislation is the right thing to do if it means that we can halve the amount of time that people have to wait to receive tax refunds.Other things the bill does have already been referred to by my colleague Grant Robertson. There are very useful changes around electronic signatures which allow for documents such as tax returns to be filed with electronic signatures. Again it is a sensible pragmatic and prudent change and something that I would hope would have the unanimous support of the House.There are also some very interesting provisions in the legislation around biometric validation. I note that the Inland Revenue Department is going to be running a trial with other departments to see whether or not voice recognition software can be trialled for the use of approval of documents. I think that is going to be an interesting thing to ponder.This is a good bill. I think it will have the widespread support of the House. The Finance and Expenditure Committee ably chaired by David Bennett is going to do a good job of examining it in further detail. I commend this bill to the House.