IRD slammed for lobbying secrecy
The Inland Revenue Department hopes to keep the lobbying it received over a proposed clampdown on multinational tax avoidance secret until after the Government has decided what it will do.
The tax department has been criticised by Labour after deciding to keep secret 38 submissions it received in response to two public consultations that closed in April.
The Government is considering tightening the tax rules around transfer pricing, permanent establishment and interest charge deductions.
Finance Minister Steven Joyce forecast in the Budget that foreign multinational companies would pay at least an extra $100 million in tax in New Zealand each year as a result.
But Inland Revenue policy manager Carmel Peters indicated ministers might not be able to make decisions ‘‘in an orderly manner’’ if it released submissions on the proposals before final decisions were made.
A spokeswoman for Revenue Minister Judith Collins said the submissions would be released once the Government had decided what steps it would take, but that the decision not to release them beforehand was one for the department.
The Office of the Ombudsman said it would look into a complaint about the non-release of the submissions.
Labour open government spokeswoman Clare Curran criticised Inland Revenue. Submissions from public consultation processes should be made public unless there was a good reason to withhold them, she said.
She questioned whether failing to do so may breach international agreements.
‘‘We have signed up to an open government partnership agreement and there are requirements for New Zealand to demonstrate it has a real commitment to transparency. This is a test.
‘‘It could indicate that they don’t like they advice, but we live in a democracy. There is a trend for this government to withhold more and more information.,’’ Curran said.
Labour revenue spokesman Michael Wood said there needed to be a good reason to withhold information.
‘‘For me it is hard to understand what that good reason would be in this case.’’