IRD closes as taxpayers lodge claims

The Inland Revenue Department will close its doors to the public for four days from tomorrow as it prepares to switch to a new information technology system.

The tax department’s contact centres will be closed from 3pm tomorrow through to 8am on Tuesday next week.

Its myIR online service will be also be unavailable and its offices will be closed to the public.

Deputy commissioner Greg James said it had tried to time the closure for the most convenient time.

Spokesman Baden Campbell acknowledged April to June was the busiest time for its call centres as people claimed tax refunds.

Some calls to Inland Revenue’s call centre were not getting though late last week, apparently because of overloading.

But Baden said it was the best time within a busy period for the shutdown. There was no good time for a shutdown but people would still have plenty of time to claim refunds, he said.

Ir-File, which is used by businesses to submit monthly payroll data will be unavailable from midnight today.

Inland Revenue is due to switch on the second stage of its new tax collection system next Tuesday.

This is part of its Business Transformation project, which is expected to cost between $1.5 billion and $1.8b and to result in Inland Revenue shedding about 1500 staff.

One of the changes brought about by stage two is that about 110,000 small businesses with an annual turnover of less than $5 million will be able to pay their company tax on a ‘‘pay as you go’’ basis through accounting software services MYOB, Reckon or Xero.

The option, called AIM (accounting income method), is an alternative to paying provisional tax. Campbell said it might be late April or early May before Inland Revenue knew what the update for the service was.

Inland Revenue commissioner Naomi Ferguson told a select committee in February that its Business Transformation project was on schedule but still involved significant risk.

Inland Revenue would be running two computer systems side by side until 2021, both which would have to ‘‘talk to each other’’, she told MPS.

‘‘We will have this coexistence between two systems. It is the area of high risk and increasing risk as we go forward.’’

James said businesses would see a new section on Inland Revenue’s website called ‘‘My Business’’ when they logged on after next Tuesday.

‘‘There has been a series of dress rehearsals in recent weeks to prepare for the migration of data on to the new system and over the last year every aspect of ‘My Business’ has been heavily user-tested to ensure customers have the best possible experience when they log back in on April 17,’’ he said.

Baden said Inland Revenue was not anticipating any problems when it reopened. Customer service staff would be undertaking activities such as training during the shutdown, he said.