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Revenue Minister Judith Collins and Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Paul Goldsmith say they are encouraged to see a marked increase in overseas student loan defaulters contacting Inland Revenue and taking steps to pay off their loans.

Since December 2014 there has been a 66% increase in the number of overseas borrowers who are behind on their payments getting in touch with Inland Revenue.

A new information sharing agreement between Inland Revenue and the Australian Tax Office has led to the contact details of almost 57,000 student loan borrowers being located across the Tasman, two thirds of whom are in default.

The agreement came into force in October and the details of around 10,000 New Zealanders were found in the first data match. The process has since been refined and a total of 56,897 people have now been located.

An information exchange agreement with the Australian Tax Office (ATO) has carried out its first match, locating 10,400 student loan borrowers living across the Tasman.

Inland Revenue last week sent an initial list of 104,000 names of New Zealand borrowers who are living overseas to the ATO. Those names matched with the contact details of 10,400 people living in Australia.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse have welcomed the passing of a Bill which will help Inland Revenue contact more student loan borrowers in Australia.

The Taxation (Residential Land Withholding Tax, GST on Online Services and Student Loans) Bill includes an information sharing agreement with the Australian Tax Office which will ensure that Kiwis fulfil their student loan obligations.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse have welcomed a further boost in repayments from overseas-based student loan borrowers.

Over the first two months of this year there was a 31 per cent increase in repayments by overseas based borrowers over the same period in 2015.  In January and February this year $29.7 million was received from overseas-based borrowers, compared with $22.7 million in January and February last year.

A tax bill introduced to Parliament today will allow information on student loan borrowers living in Australia to be shared between Inland Revenue and the Australian Taxation Office, ensuring defaulters pay their outstanding loan balances.  

Overseas-based Kiwis with student loans have collectively repaid more than $200 million in additional repayments towards their outstanding balances through the overseas-based borrowers initiative, Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Todd McClay announced today.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Todd McClay have welcomed the announcement of an arrangement that will see Australia and New Zealand share data to assist New Zealand to recoup unpaid student loans of defaulters in Australia.

Prime Minister John Key and Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the information-sharing arrangement at their annual Leaders’ Meeting today.

The Government initiative aimed at encouraging overseas student loan debtors to start repaying their loans has now netted $150 million in additional payments, and the pace of collection is picking up.

Tertiary Education, Skills and Employment Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Todd McClay say the initiative took three years to collect its first $100 million, and just six months to collect the next fifty million. It now has a year-to-date return of $16 for every $1 invested in it.