Robertson Grant: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRobertson Grant: Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 12 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10378. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): Thank you Mr Chair for the call—that is terrific. I also want to talk about clause 26 within Part 1 which relates to the new provisions on disclosure of information in this case to the Australian Taxation Office. By way of background what is happening here is that effectively New Zealand has a new arrangement for the exchange of information regarding student loans which was signed between the Australian Commissioner of Taxation and the New Zealand Commissioner of Inland Revenue in March 2015.This sits alongside a range of provisions in New Zealand law to exchange information with other taxation jurisdictions; for instance double taxation agreements that we have with Australia and with around I think 40 other countries; and also what is called—as this is—a taxation information exchange agreement which we currently hold with 11 countries. It is not 12 countries. Malta is not on the list of countries with which we have a tax information exchange agreement despite what the Prime Minister told the House last week when he stood up and said that we did have a tax information exchange agreement with Malta—we do not. He has not come to—The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): We are talking student loans here.GRANT ROBERTSON: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. We are indeed and what we are specifically talking about if I refer to the commentary on the bill provided to us by the Minister is an “Arrangement for the Exchange of Information”—those words all have capital letters on them. I am currently working through the arrangements for information exchange that are in the call.The CHAIRPERSON (Hon Chester Borrows): Taking the member’s point of order what we are talking about—and I refer specifically to the clause that he is talking about—is the disclosure of information with the Australia Taxation Office. If he wants to make some side reference then he has done that and he should move on.GRANT ROBERTSON: Thank you Mr Chair. So as I was saying it says in new section 209A(1): “The purpose of this section is to facilitate the exchange of information between the Inland Revenue Department and the Australian Taxation Office”. What I was pointing out was that we have a double taxation agreement with Australia. This taxation information exchange agreement is an additional agreement. I was just making the point that we do not have one of those with Malta and I am waiting for the Prime Minister to correct that.The reason that we have this clause in here is to enable a much clearer line of communication between our Inland Revenue Department and the Australian Taxation Office. There are certain details that are now required to be exchanged. Those details in new section 209A(3) include: “(a) a borrower’s name or any other name by which a borrower is known: (b) a borrower’s date of birth: (c) a borrower’s tax file number: (d) a borrower’s last known address and contact details: (e) any other information that the Commissioner considers relevant for the purposes referred to in subsection (1)(a) and (b).” That is quite a comprehensive set of details about student loan borrowers.Dr David Clark: And we know who the beneficiary is.GRANT ROBERTSON: Indeed. In fact the first one is well worth going into a little further—“a borrower’s name or any other name by which a borrower is known”. That is actually a comprehensive way of identifying who a student loan borrower is.If we compare that with other disclosure arrangements that the Inland Revenue Department has—in fact I will put the question to the Minister of Revenue as to whether he would like to compare that and see whether he thinks there is fairness here for student loans borrowers versus for instance those who run a foreign trust in New Zealand who actually can get away without even saying what the name of the trust is because if you do not know what the name of the trust is you do not even have to put it in the form. No. You have just got to describe it; you do not actually have to put the name in it. So a question for the Minister is whether he thinks it is fair that student loans borrowers have this obligation but those people who want to avoid paying their tax elsewhere in the world do not even have to put the name of their trust down.We can say the same thing here about the extent of these disclosure arrangements because there is no doubt in this—there is no “might” or “if”. Information has to be collected and available and shared. It is that sharing that is the essence of this clause. It is not just about making sure that a student loan borrower keeps that information because if we were comparing this with other disclosure arrangements in tax law the person who is a settlor of a foreign trust in New Zealand just has to keep the information. They do not have to share it with anybody; they do not actually have to make it available; they just have to keep it. I wonder whether the Minister would like to tell us whether that is fair. If student loan borrowers have to meet their repayment obligations—and I think everybody in this Chamber acknowledges they should because that is an important part of having taken out a loan—why are those sorts of obligations not on other types of people who interact with the Inland Revenue Department? I would like to hear the Minister justify some of those concerns.