Government Must Untangle Novopay Tax Web

new-zealand-first-party

Fri Apr 05 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Government Must Untangle Novopay Tax Web

Friday, 5 April 2013, 12:59 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Tracey Martin MP
Spokesperson for Education
5 April 2013

Government Must Untangle Novopay Tax Web

New Zealand First says the Government must send in payroll experts to individual schools to unravel what could be significant tax headaches for staff from Novopay’s continued blunders.

Education spokesperson Tracey Martin says with a new financial year kicking off, there’s likely to be confusion over the amount of tax teachers owe, when they have been wrongly paid.

“How can teachers put in accurate tax returns if it’s still not clear exactly how much they’ve earned over the past 12 months?

“Teaching couples with joint bank accounts have such a confusing mess between them that it’s becoming impossible to unravel.”

Ms Martin knows of a couple where one has been over-paid by thousands of dollars but they’ve had to put that money towards living costs because the other hasn’t been paid at all.

“Will Novopay have sorted out the problem in time so they can repay the debt? What are the tax implications for them?

“Minister Steven Joyce needs to sort out the mess by putting experts into each school cluster, enabling staff to go over their individual issues.

“It’s not teachers’ responsibility to make sure Novopay has done its job properly.

“Mr ‘Fix-it’, you’ve already had to call off the debt-collectors – do staff now have to fear the taxman?

“How much more pressure can this botched system put on staff?

“Clearly there’s no capability to manage the beast that is Novopay,” says Ms Martin.

ENDS

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