An accounting boss believes the time it takes for businesses to do a tax return could be cut to 48 hours in the future. Picture / 123RF
Greater automation between businesses and the tax department could see the time it takes to get a tax return reduced to just 48 hours in the future, according to the head of an online accounting service.
Sue de Bievre, chief executive of Beany, which does the accounts for 2000 small
businesses, says the Inland Revenue is moving towards more automation and soon tax returns could involve computers talking to computers cutting out the data entry needed by humans and the timeframe it takes to file returns.
"Xero really changed the game - they have hooked up the banks with small business owners and have worked hard with the IRD."
"I think what will happen in the future is that it becomes much less transactional when you file a tax return. The AI [artificial intelligence] will search for an exception. There won't be tax people that look after that data."
She says it will be good news for a lot of small businesspeople who spend a lot of time filing returns for GST and tax.