Leary Ingrid; Watts SimonINGRID LEARY (Labour—Taieri): Thank you Mr Chair. I've got a question that has been perplexing me and I'd really like to know if the Minister has turned his mind to it. It is to do with new section LC 14 Amount of tax credit for independent earners for 1 April 2024 to 30 July 2024" which is inserted by clause 4. Subsection (2) talks about the formula being a "(person's credit − full year abatement) × credit period days ÷ 365." There is also a reference in subsection (5) to the tax year; in subsection (6) to the tax year the tax credit tax year; and then in subsection (6) " Credit period days is the number of whole days in the credit period." and then it says "Defined in this Act:" and it talks about the tax year.Now this is very specific to a period of time before we get to the beginning of the financial year and my colleague the Hon Dr Deborah Russell has referred to payroll systems and the mechanisation of some of these formulas. We have seen in Health New Zealand's payroll system and also in education years and years of problems with not being able to determine payroll-type situations because of mechanisation and because the systems have not been able to allow for shift work and so on.So when I ask this question it's very genuine. We're talking about a very specific period of time. This is a leap year. There are 366 days. This credit period here says "365". Now I know that it's not the whole year but if we are talking about a defined period of time in the Act then it would seem out of fairness and accuracy we should have actually had 366 days. So I'm curious to know why the Minister has opted for 365.Did anybody actually turn their mind to this and is it something that you would normally turn your mind to and if not why not? The reality is that we're in a leap year and this is a real calculation that people will be doing on their earnings. We know that the Inland Revenue Department tries to be as fair as possible. I know for example that sometimes people have got tax returns sent back to them. In the old days people would get a cheque for 39c in the mail to say "This is your fair entitlement." That is how fair the Inland Revenue likes to be because this is about numbers—numbers are accurate—and I do not understand why in a leap year for a specific period of time under new section LC 14 there would be a reference to 365 days to do a calculation that is somehow going to be wrong. Is that fair? Did the Minister turn his mind to it? Did he seek advice on it and will the systems that are used to calculate this be able to do so in a fair way given the realities of the fact that we have an extra day this year?Hon SIMON WATTS (Minister of Revenue): Thank you Mr Chair. I am conscious that I am repeating myself but I will for the final time in regards to this date because the date seems to be quite complexing for members of the Opposition. The date that was chosen will facilitate the fastest period of time in which this coalition Government can deliver tax relief to hard-working Kiwis. The consultation that we undertook including with the Ministry of Social Development including with ACC including with the Ministry of Health and all of those large Government departments indicated to us that that date period would provide them with adequate time in order to ensure that they could make those changes. So we did undertake consultation with large Government departments which was a question from the Hon Dr Deborah Russell.The other aspect in regards to payroll providers—yes we did consult with them. Their feedback to us was that 31 July was a sensible period of time for them to effect the changes. So on that basis that's why we put in place this date. We have not had changes in tax thresholds since 1 October 2010. So the criticality of getting these tax changes in play into the back pockets of hard-working Kiwis as fast as is practical is what's driving this Government.I don't think that's unreasonable. Actually I think that's quite practical. That's why on this side of the House we are a practical Government. We're trying to get in place these tax changes as fast as possible and that's all we're doing. That's all we've done. I'm not sure where the Opposition is coming from in terms of asking why we don't take longer."