TAX  AGENCY

                                    

 

McLean and Co.  is an Inland Revenue Department registered tax agent.  

A person or business can apply to the Inland Revenue Department to act as a tax agent but before this is granted he/she/it must be able to  indicate to the Inland Revenue Department that they have a number of clients that they are acting on behalf of and will register under their agency, and that they have a good credit record with, particularly in their past dealings with the Inland Revenue Department.

As a consequence of advising a person or organisation that you wish  that person or organisation to act as your tax agent that tax agent will then advise the Inland Revenue Department of the agency.  Before this occurs you should sign an Authority from that person/organisation authorising the agency to discuss any information  relating to yourself with the Inland Revenue, as under the Privacy Act 1993 and the Tax Administration Act 1994 Inland Revenue staff cannot discuss any information about the taxpayer with the agent unless there is authorisation by the taxpayer to do so. 

IRD are quite happy to foster the tax agency philosophy, as they recognise that most tax agents are tax professionals and members of professional organisations and therefore have to comply with the rules and ethics pertaining to those organisations., and therefore financial statements and tax returns are likely to be prepared in a professional manner in compliance with tax law.

When agreeing to a person/ organisation to act as your tax Accountant, it is advisable to check qualifications and membership of professional organisations.

Indeed the numbers of tax audits  are likely to be far lower if you are registered with a tax agent than if you attempt to prepare financial statements and tax returns yourself.

 To retain tax agency tax agents have to continue to demonstrate professionalism and have to maintain certain filing percentages with the IRD.

 

Benefits that taxpayers derive by being registered with tax agents are:

Quicker processing of returns

Their tax accounting requirements are (usually) handled by a person/ organisation that is up to date with current tax law.
They get extension of time for filing tax returns.  For example, 31 March taxpayers can file up to 31 March in the following year without penalty, whereas non-agency taxpayers have to file by 7 July if in business after balance date to escape penalty.
They get extension of time to pay terminal tax and ACC Levies to IRD.  For example, 31 March taxpayers don’t have to pay until 7 April in the following year, whereas non-agency taxpayers have to pay 7 February in the following year.
If they did not pay Provisional Tax in the previous Income year and they are due to pay Provisional Tax in this Income year they will be able to pay it in two equal instalments or one instalment if their Income Tax Return is not prepared in time for the dates of the first or second  instalments without penalty.   This does not apply to taxpayers not registered with agents.
The tax agent will generally receive Income Tax and ACC Assessments direct from IRD, which gives the tax agent the opportunity to check these before passing them onto the client.
Access by the agent to tax information held by Inland Revenue Department which enables the agent to make tax enquiries on behalf of the client.
On occasions IRD will deal with the agent direct if they have queries about the taxpayer, rather than bothering the taxpayer.
IRD realise that a tax agent is handling the affairs of the taxpayer, which is likely to reduce the incidence of tax audit.

If we can assist further, please email TotalAccounting as follows:

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