6 March 2020
Mr Robert McKenzie
[email address]
Dear Mr McKenzie
Your request made under the Official Information Act (the OIA), to the Department of
Internal Affairs, was partial y transferred to Inland Revenue on 14 February 2020 for
response.
The partial y transferred request is:
It has been reported in the media of the last 9 arrests (not counting the most recent
one in Jan) that $30,000 had been collected from the arrests, this equates to $3750.00
per arrest counting 8 (less than the yearly required minimum).
1. Could I please have the full costings of court appearances, 2 per head – initial
court appearance and second final hearing?
3. Cost of resources, hourly rate of tax agent dedicated to each case?
4. Has the amount col ected, $30,000, covered the costs of what has been spent
by the taxpayer?
6. And finally, how many of the arrested were unable to pay or refused to pay?
Questions 1, 3 and 4
Inland Revenue does not attribute costs associated with the administration of the student
loan scheme to individual cases. Compiling the background information before each case
goes to court can take a number of months and may involve multiple Inland Revenue staff.
Additionally, Inland Revenue case officers may be working on multiple cases at a time, not
all of which wil result in a court appearance.
As there is no way to directly connect the resource costs spent by the taxpayer to individual
cases, I am declining this part of your request under section 18(g) of the OIA, as the
information is not held by Inland Revenue.
Question 6
The information you have requested is considered sensitive revenue information under
section 18 of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (TAA). Sensitive revenue information can
only be released if there is a permitted disclosure.
There is no permitted disclosure that would allow me to release this information to you.
Accordingly, I have decided to refuse your request under section 18(c)(i) of the OIA, as
releasing this information would be contrary to section 18 of the TAA.
Ref: 20OIA1246
IN CONFIDENCE
Right of Review
If you disagree with my decisions on your OIA request, you can ask an Inland Revenue
review officer to review my decisions. To ask for an internal review, please email the
Commissioner of Inland Revenue at: [email address].
Alternatively, under section 28(3) of the OIA, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman
to investigate and review my decision. You can contact the office of the Ombudsman by
email at: [email address].
Thank you for your request.
Yours sincerely
Sharyn Rea
Segment Management Lead – Individuals
Ref: 20OIA1246
IN CONFIDENCE
