New Zealand among easiest countries for paying taxes

Media Release
EMBARGOED UNTIL SATURDAY, 19 NOVEMBER 2016, 1AM

New Zealand among easiest countries for paying taxes –
PwC and The World Bank Group

The Paying Taxes 2017 report by The World Bank Group and PwC puts New Zealand well ahead of the global average and our neighbours in respect of businesses dealing with their tax obligations.

Paying Taxes 2017 is a study that investigates and compares tax regimes across 190 economies worldwide, ranking them according to the relative ease of paying taxes for business. This year marks a major extension of the study as it includes the tax audit and dispute processes for the first time. This has had a very significant impact on the results for New Zealand, moving our ranking from 22 up to 11.

Geof Nightingale, PwC Partner and National Financial Advisory Services Leader says:
“The ability to do business and pay taxes in New Zealand is world class and the Inland Revenue’s business transformation project will continue to simplify processes and further improve our business-friendly tax system.”

“With the extension of the survey to the audit and dispute process, we get a better view of the entire tax process – from filing the business’ GST and income tax returns to completing an audit (if needed). It’s good to see that NZ is close to an almost perfect score with 96.9 (where 100 is the best score). We’re ahead of Australia (95.4) as well as the UK (87.4) and that’s a great achievement and an advantage for businesses in NZ.”

NZ also ranks as the number one country in terms of ease of doing business, among 190 economies.

In most economies, filing a tax return with the tax authority is a long process that does not imply acceptance of the final tax liability. The challenges often start after the tax return has been filed.

Post-filing processes - such as claiming a GST refund, undergoing a tax audit or appealing a tax assessment - can be the most challenging interactions that a business has with a tax authority. Businesses might have to invest more time and effort into the processes occurring after filing of tax returns than just into the regular tax compliance procedures.

“In NZ, the process is seen as relatively efficient, fair and transparent. While this is good news, Inland Revenue’s ongoing efforts to transform the tax system and improve the experience even more should continue to be pursued by the Government,” says Mr Nightingale.

-Ends-

Notes:
Please note that for any year the study takes into account data for a calendar year two years before so Paying Taxes 2017, published in 2016, looks at data relating to the calendar year to 31 December 2015.

The findings are from the latest edition of the Paying Taxes 2017 report which examines how easy it is to pay taxes in 190 countries. The report models business taxation in each country using a medium sized domestic case study company. This year’s study has been extended to examine post-tax filing processes for the first time.

The World Bank’s Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All report, released on 25 October 2016, ranks four economies in the East Asia and Pacific region among the top 10 economies globally in the Doing Business rankings. The number one spot goes to New Zealand, followed by Singapore (2), Hong Kong SAR, China (4) and the Republic of Korea (5).

About PwC
At PwC, our purpose is to build trust in society and solve important problems. PwC is a network of firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 people who are committed to delivering quality in assurance, advisory and tax services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.co.nz

PwC refers to the New Zealand member firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

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