Williams Andrew: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWilliams Andrew: Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill — Third Reading[Sitting date: 20 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:16206. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ANDREW WILLIAMS (NZ First): It is very good to stand and take a call on behalf of New Zealand First in this third reading of the Taxation (Annual Rates Foreign Superannuation and Remedial Matters) Bill and to come after the deputy chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee Maggie Barry who has obviously given it great rigour. We think though that it should be regarded more as rigor mortis perhaps rather than rigour because at one stage the deputy chair was saying that it was going to be very simple and by the end of her speech she said that it was very complicated. So hopefully somewhere between the simple and the complicated there is an average ground.When that member said she was going to help foreigners bring their superannuation onshore I hope that she did the same when she moved from Point Chevalier over to the North Shore. Maybe she has moved her KiwiSaver funds to Fisher Funds in Takapuna and Devonport rather than leaving them on the south side of the bridge. If she is a true North Shore-ite she will have moved her funds over the bridge to invest them in the North Shore.But we are back on to the bill and we are talking about a number of things here. This bill is very much an administrative bill. New Zealand First will be supporting this bill in its third reading as we have done in the earlier readings. It basically amends the Income Tax Act 2007 the Tax Administration Act 1994 and the KiwiSaver Act 2006. In so doing it replaces some existing tax rules for New Zealand residents with interests in foreign superannuation schemes. It also changes the tax rules relating to the mining of specified minerals clarifies the rules for Working for Families tax credits addresses a mismatch in the tax rules relating to imputation credits and Australian dividends refines the rules for the deductions available to holders of bad debt and includes the granting of donee status to three charitable organisations. We are in agreement with all these measures and we believe that this is correct legislation to be passed.The bill proposes a much simpler regime for taxing New Zealand residents who receive foreign superannuation interests in their previous country of residence. The bill proposes a simple way for people to remedy their previous positions and start afresh under a new regime and a concessionary approach encourages them to do so. This particularly takes account of the fact that in terms of KiwiSaver there are proposed changes to the KiwiSaver Act 2006 to allow taxpayers who transfer from a foreign scheme to a KiwiSaver scheme to withdraw sufficient funds from that KiwiSaver scheme to pay the tax that arises on that transfer. Again this is sensible to encourage those KiwiSaver funds back into New Zealand. In terms of student loan obligation the bill allows a taxpayer to withdraw funds from KiwiSaver to cover their student loan repayment obligations arising from such a transfer as well as the tax obligation.These measures are just a sampling of some of the things in this bill. There are a great many other facets including in relation to mining. The bill proposes a range of measures including the fact that immediate tax deductions for prospecting and exploration expenditure will continue. However on the establishment of an operational mine exploration expenditure on items used for the extraction of minerals will be clawed back and will be deductible over the life of the mine. Tax deductions for development expenditure will be deferred and allowed over the life of the mine also.I note that the bill also contains a number of amendments to ensure that the income tax rules cater for the rebuilding activity now taking place in Canterbury. Again that is a good move. So overall we are in agreement with what is in this bill and New Zealand First commends it to the House.