Flood (Disaster Relief) Bill

Wednesday, 17 March 2004, 10:27 am
Press Release: Federated Farmers

Tom Lambie, President of Federated Farmers of New Zealand (Inc), will be available for media interviews after the passage of the Taxation (Disaster Relief) Bill.

The bill is expected to be passed under urgency Tuesday night. If passed, the law change will give the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) more leeway in dealing with people having problems paying taxes because of the February floods.

"Federated Farmers appreciates the Government's drive to speedily change the law, which will give much-needed breathing space to the many people whose tax records were lost or destroyed by flooding," Mr Lambie said.

Currently the IRD does not have the power to waive interest charges on late tax payments, no matter how deserving an individual case for clemency.

"Federated Farmers fully supports this legislative change and expects it will gain the unanimous support of Parliament," Mr Lambie said.

This bill follows Federated Farmers working with the government and IRD in the month since the North Island floods.

Flooded farm houses resulted in the destruction of paper and electronic tax records and other financial data. Such flood-affected farmers and other business taxpayers have been unable to meet their GST and PAYE tax obligations that vary in frequency from fortnightly to bi-monthly, and their provisional tax obligations.

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