Katene Rahui: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
Katene Rahui: Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:669;Page:15891] 
RAHUI KATENE (Maori Party—Te Tai Tonga) 
: 
 I am pleased to stand to speak on the Taxation (Tax Administration and Remedial Matters) Bill which amends the Tax Administration Act 1994 to improve the ability of the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to disclose information in the course of furthering good tax administration practice. We support this global goal. We support any intervention by the Government to increase transparency and promote the effective use of Government resources and taxpayer funds. So we actually welcome the move to abolish gift duty because it no longer raises any significant revenue and it imposes a high level of compliance costs on the private sector. One of the goals that we the Maori Party campaigned on was to review compliance requirements so that there was no increase in compliance costs. So much in the same way we welcome the changes to the procedural rules around the tax disputes process which together with some administration changes to the process would make for a much more streamlined process. 
The Maori Party supports the general premise of privacy law which is the promotion and protection of individual privacy and it has commented previously on its concerns regarding the protection of privacy and flows of personal data. We have raised concerns about information held by agencies and how it is used. The bill makes it easier for tax information to be shared with other Government agencies in certain circumstances. These circumstances appear to be ones that are justified because the asking agency already has the ability and authority to collect the information in its own right. The ability for this information to be shared with credit rating agencies no longer applies. The legislation confirms plans to widen the scope for the Inland Revenue Department to share individual taxpayer information but only with Government agencies that would have the power to collect the information anyway. So we are very pleased with that. I am really pleased that this legislation does not go as far as it first threatened to when there was the idea that individual files would be given to credit rating agencies. We are definitely pleased that that idea was abandoned. 
Perhaps the only point that we have a question on is the decision that donee status will be granted to some overseas charities. The bill proposes that charities that apply some or all of their funds outside New Zealand must be approved for charitable donee status. Donations to recognised organisations entitle individual taxpayers to a credit of 33.3 percent of the amount donated up to level of their taxable income. We have had a look at the seven charities and we are really pleased with the work that they are doing. We have no question at all about the immense value of social entrepreneurship demonstrated in those seven organisations. Our only question relates to why those seven were chosen and what was the rationale for including those seven—[ 
Interruption 
] thank you for that—as opposed to any number of other organisations that may fall into this category. Hopefully there might be others—that are already doing that work and are not new—that can be added in. But we are very pleased with the way this bill is going and we will support it at its first reading.