Are you experiencing delays in dealing with the IRD? The Business Herald would like to hear your story: Email the Business Herald.
KEY POINTS:
The Business Herald has been flooded with stories from taxpayers experiencing delays and problems in dealing with the Inland Revenue Department.
Following comments from the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants this week that KiwiSaver and other new initiatives have overloaded the IRD, we asked for reader response.
The overwhelming theme was the difficulty of getting through to the department on the phone.
One respondent said: "Last month I spent a total of four hours, over the course of two weeks, trying to get through to the IRD. It seems that after about 30 minutes on hold, you automatically get cut off."
Another said every time they rang they were told they could not be connected due to overloading.
After three days of being told the lines were overloaded, one taxpayer took a different tack: "I rang the number for overdue tax, ie you owe them money. What a surprise, got someone to talk to straight away."
One customer said she was on hold for an hour just to update her Family Assistance. Another taxpayer tried turning up in person: "I went to their office in Manukau to inquire. [The] person at the counter insisted I ring the 0800 number."
Late or irrelevant correspondence was also a problem.
A man who regularly paid his PAYE and withholding tax early said he continued to get reminder notices and penalties charged, which were then reversed. "One month recently I got four letters."
An accountancy firm employee said it took 60 days for any correspondence to be answered.
Another accountant said IRD had still not actioned a GST refund owed to one of his clients filed in March, nor responded to the client's written requests.
It was not all brickbats. Several people said they were answered promptly and politely.
"I'm not usually on the side of the IRD, but this time I give them 10/10," one said.
Carolyn Tremain, IRD's deputy commissioner of service delivery, apologised for the delays.
She said IRD was in peak season, and call volumes were up on last year.
Extra people had been put on the phones, and IRD had just launched a callback system called Virtual Hold to help ease the load.
It had a wide number of 0800 lines and call waiting times varied across them.
Are you experiencing delays in dealing with the IRD? The Business Herald would like to hear your story:
Email the Business Herald.
