IRD Now Have No Choice but to Prosecute Winebox Offenders—Peters.

The Rt Hon Peters is asking the Inland Revenue Department when it will follow the lead of the collecting the hundreds of millions of dollars in outstanding taxes now that it has accepted the High Court decision on his Wine-box appeal.

The Serious Fraud Office has already announced that it intends to re-investigate then case.

Mr Peters is today writing to IRD Commissioner Graham Holland asking what action his department now intends to take in light of a report that IRD will not appeal the findings of the High Court decision of four weeks ago. The decision found that Justice Davison was wrong in the original Wine-box report when he ruled that there was no wrong-doing in the so-called Magnum deals.

“The announcement today that IRD does not intend to appeal the High Court decision last month on the Winebox leaves IRD has no alternative but to prosecute those who perpetrated the original schemes,” according to Mr Peters.

“This is the most significant announcement that IRD have made on this whole matter. Finally, after 8 years of denials, IRD have admitted that they got it wrong when they claimed that form was more important than substance and turned a blind eye to a raft of avoidance schemes. There has never been any doubt that IRD mis-applied the law in the first instance.

“There is now no way left that they can drag their feet on this issue, there are no more legal stalling tactics they can employ, IRD have been proved wrong again and again—they now have no alternative but to bring this whole saga to a close and prosecute those responsible.

“I would urge IRD Commissioner to do his job by protecting the integrity of the tax system and take action immediately—That is their job after all. No -one wants to see this whole saga brought to a close more than me.

ENDS

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