Prebble Richard: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
Prebble Richard: Taxation (Annual Rates Venture Capital and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:622;Page:17363] 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE (ACT) 
: 
 I will ask the Minister a question. I wonder whether he could explain to the Committee the changes that are being made in clause 125 “Zero-rating of services” because it is quite an interesting new clause. The clause states that the present section 11A(1B) is replaced by the following: “(1B) Subsection (1)(j) does not apply to a supply of services that is treated by section 8(4B) as being made in New Zealand unless the nature of the services is such that the services can be physically received at no time and place other than the time and place at which the services are physically performed.” I have been nutting that out and thinking about it and I figure there must be some rort that somebody has worked out. Is this when people are providing services to people in New Zealand from outside and they are deemed to be within New Zealand? It is an amendment to the present section which seems to be quite straightforward: “(j) the services are physically performed outside New Zealand or are the arranging of services that are physically performed outside New Zealand;”. That is zero-rated. Now we have this peculiar sentence. I have been trying to think what the nature of a service is that is physically received at no time and place other than the time and place at which the services were physically performed. It would seem to be logical that all services must be performed at the time they were performed. Logically a service can only have been performed at the time that it was performed. If it was performed at a different time then it was not performed at that time. 
Hon Bill English 
: The member doesn’t understand. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: I do not. I freely admit that. 
Gordon Copeland 
: It could be in different places. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Metaphysically it might be. But it was either performed at the time that it was performed or it was not. Here we are— 
Hon Bill English 
: The key word is “only”. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: Does the member mean that it could be performed only at that particular time and at that particular place? I would like to know what services those are—[ 
Interruption 
] The member cannot think of any? I am having difficulty myself. 
Gordon Copeland 
: I can think of a few. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: The United Future member says that he can think of a few. That would be interesting. I suppose hot cross bun making can only be done— 
Hon Bill English 
: It is paying a credit card bill while you are flying with an airline over the Internet. 
Hon RICHARD PREBBLE 
: The suggestion is that it is paying a credit card bill while one is flying with an airline. The Minister is getting advice and I would be interested in that outcome. 
That brings me to another point which the Minister might like to comment on. When the goods and services tax was introduced it was said that it would be a nice simple and easy tax to introduce. If one now looks at the sheer complexity of the amendments that we are making and then one looks at what is being amended and the sheer complexity of that it would appear to me that GST is becoming rather complex. Is that the situation? If so is there any solution other than introducing these incredibly complicated amendment bills that we now introduce every year? I wonder as the Minister is part of a reforming Government whether he has had a look at that and whether there is any great solution or every year are we to pass clauses that are almost metaphysical in their nature? When one looks at some of the other clauses they are almost police State in their nature. They declare things to be and people must provide information in a way that would be totally unacceptable in any other legislation introduced into this Parliament. So if the Minister has been looking at GST generally given the sorts of problems I can see from the zero rating clause I would be interested in the answer. If it was a rort that we are fixing here I would quite like to know what it was.