A big change we've put in place is how often financial institutions like banks report income customers make from their investments. We now get this information electronically every month, instead of once a year.
As long as you've given your IRD number to your financial institution, we'll show this income in your myIR account when we get it. You no longer need to spend time gathering investment income information, and do not need to remember to include the information on your return.
We'll soon be helping banks find out the correct IRD numbers for their customers where they have not supplied one or it’s incorrect, so the right tax is paid at the right time.
With more accurate information, we have also improved the way we look at customers registered for approved issuer levy (AIL). We can now identify individual investors and who they're investing with. We use this information to make sure they're not related parties and are allowed to use the AIL rules. This helps you avoid large bills if you've got it wrong by mistake, and also helps us identify customers using the AIL rules to avoid tax on purpose.