Inland Revenue staff are making unannounced visits to hundreds of businesses who it suspects aren’t meeting all their tax obligations as employers.
The businesses have been identified from a list of nearly 7000 anonymous tipoffs provided to the department each year.
Nearly 300 employers will be visited, with the anonymous information being analysed to show that the tax risks relate to taking cash for personal use without recording sales and/or paying employees in cash.
“The volume of tipoffs has grown over previous years indicating an increased sense of frustration by the community in general with businesses who are not doing the right thing,” the IRD said in a statement.
IRD said risk factors included businesses that handled large sums of cash, and others that dealt with lower transaction values where it was more common for customers to pay in cash.
The visits were not an audit or in-depth review, but would allow business to explain what they are doing and get some assistance in doing things correctly.
“We want the businesses we are visiting to understand their obligations and we’ll help them put their affairs right.
“But we’ll also act on any further non-compliance, with consequences for them.”