The tax department has ramped up efforts to crack down overseas student loan debtors - with more than a billion dollars owed by people that IRD has no contact information for.
In a briefing to the Minister for Revenue earlier this year Inland Revenue confirmed it was trialing using an external provider to use "advanced data mining techniques" to locate defaulters.
It also said it was focused on those who own property here or have New Zealand based investments, the top 250 UK and Australia based debtors, those who have been back to New Zealand three or more times in the last year and those who have defaulted on their instalment arrangements.
One arrest at the border of a defaulter has been made this year, and 89 others have been told that they may be arrested at the border.
Jake Lilley who is Senior Policy Advisor at Fincap - which represents financial mentors and budgeting services - told Nine to Noon yesterday that the contracting of an outside agency was a worrying development and Dave Ananth - a tax barrister with the law firm Stace Hammond and a former prosecutor with the IRD - also told us he was concerned over the increasing heavy-handedness of some of the tactics IRD was beginning to deploy.
IRD customer segment leader is Jane Elley.
Photo: 123rf
