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Inland Revenue will waive use of money interest on late tax payments when flooding has prevented people from paying on time, say Lead Minister for Edgecumbe Anne Tolley and Revenue Minister Judith Collins.

“In the aftermath of the Edgecumbe and Bay of Plenty floods businesses in affected areas have enough to deal with without having to worry about their tax obligations at the same time,” Mrs Tolley says.

Eligibility for housing assistance and student allowances could be established more accurately under information sharing proposals released for public consultation today by Social Development Minister Anne Tolley and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse.

Information sharing already exists between IRD and MSD, but the Government is proposing to group the various current information sharing agreements into one.

The proposals also extend the use of information to enable MSD to:

Changes to tax laws will clarify that payments to foster carers for the care of children and young people cannot be treated as income and are not subject to income tax, say Social Development Minister Anne Tolley and Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse.

Foster carers receive a care allowance from the government to help meet the needs of a child or young person such as board, personal items, pocket money, and additional reasonable costs.

Social Development Minister Anne Tolley and Revenue Minister Todd McClay say that taxpayers will soon be saving millions of dollars each year as a result of more efficient use of data from information sharing.

Improved automation of Ministry of Social Development systems from late 2015, away from a manual service, will allow it to identify overpayments of benefits much more quickly, so that they can be corrected sooner.

It is estimated that this more effective way of working will lead to Crown savings of around $100 million a year by 2018.