ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that it was appalling that IRD had to admit that it had got it wrong again.

"It turns out that for some months the IRD has not been able to send PAYE Statements of Account to some employers. These are supposed to be sent monthly. The affected employers now don't know their tax position. They could be up for serious penalties and interest payments and simply not know.

"The apology is a form later dated July and is from IRD's National Manager, Business Direct, Brye Patchell. He gives no explanation of the IRD's failure.

"I will be asking Sir William Birch to explain IRD's latest error, how many employers have been affected and whether they will be required to pay interest or penalties if unwittingly behind in their PAYE.

"This latest admission from the IRD comes hard on the heels of National Manager, BusinessLink Jared Mullen's letter apologising to tax agents for the quality of the statements and notices they had been issuing.

As Mullen explains, the IRD has been calculating penalties and interest incorrectly, sending out inaccurate statements of account, inaccurate debt letters and inaccurate charging orders to employers and banks.

"It's scandalous. The small businessperson makes a minor mistake and the IRD crush them. I have seen successful businesses financially ruined for minor mistakes and yet the IRD can make grand mistakes imposing huge cost on business and get away with it. It's well-passed time that Sir William Birch admitted that there are serious problems with the Department that he is supposed to be responsible for," said Rodney Hide.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>