Inland Revenue says their staff have recently been visiting people and businesses who owe tax, but only if all other attempts to engage with them have failed.
Photo: Supplied
People with tax debt to Inland Revenue could get a knock on their doors if they ignore other communication.
In recent months, the department has been making physical visits – something a spokesperson said it had previously not done in a long time.
“Making a physical visit to a person’s or business location who owes tax occurs only when other attempts to get engagement have failed,” he said.
“We don’t have a specific threshold but typically would be in relation to larger amounts of tax debt. We recently ran a campaign where we sent targeted text reminders telling the recipients that there was a tax debt that needed to be addressed to avoid further accumulation of late payment penalties and interest.
“For those who did not respond to these text messages, we made visits which motivated the debtors to take more meaningful action to address their debts. A good proportion of those visited did engage with us positively to sort out their tax debts. We will continue to apply this type of intervention, among others, depending on the nature of response that occurs.”
He said IR could not yet give information about the number of people visited.
People who still did not take appropriate action after those visits could end up having bankruptcy or liquidation proceedings instigated against them.
“This is a step of last resort, but necessary for those who deliberately chose not to comply with their tax obligations.”
Deloitte tax partner Robyn Walker said visiting was part of a deliberate move from IR to be more visible.
“For a few years during Covid the approach of IR was to be supportive of businesses, but now the time has come to have a more visible presence.
“We have heard from leaders within Inland Revenue that there will be more of a focus of undertaking audits and also getting out and about and visiting taxpayers. Having a physical presence in the community is harder for taxpayers to ignore.”