Survey shows room for improvement in the way New Zealand taxes business

In collaboration with BusinessNZ, Deloitte New Zealand has published a survey which captures what the biggest New Zealand companies’ CEOs think about a range of tax issues, including corporate tax rates, deductibility, depreciation and incentives for investment. The report broadly concludes that there is room for improvement and some-fine tuning required to ensure that New Zealand’s tax system is performing optimally and that New Zealand’s economy remains competitive.

The themes in the survey include the need for tax authorities to:

• Provide certainty;
• Eliminate black hole expenditure;
• Help to strengthen buildings;
• Restore depreciation for industrial buildings;
• Maintain an internationally competitive corporate tax rate;
• Encourage research and development;
• Put New Zealand’s interests first;
• Allow taxpayers some flexibility;
• Treat commercial information like personal information; and
• Determine policy based on realities.

The survey and its results are not focused on reducing tax on large companies. Rather, its focus is on adjusting certain specific tax settings to drive appropriate policy and administrative outcomes that are also relevant to a much wider group of taxpayers.

Click here to access the full survey.  

September 2017 Tax Alert contents

• New Zealand makes BEPS announcements
• Deloitte 2017 BEPS Global Survey
• Election 2017
• Do your contracts comply with the new Transfer Pricing Guidelines
• Inland Revenue targeting FBT – Are you ready?
  
• Get your GST matters right before settlement
• Survey shows room for improvement in the way New Zealand taxes business
• A snapshot of recent developments