Te Tari Taake, Inland Revenue contributed to 80% of the Crown’s tax revenue for 2022–23.
Our aim is to collect revenue as efficiently and effectively as possible. We work to ensure the tax system continues to be a reliable source of revenue for government to fund services.
This year’s tax revenue was $104.5 billion. The result is 3.9% higher than in 2021–22, driven mostly by growth in tax deducted at source from individual tax payers, resident withholding tax on interest income and GST. We collected $103.1 billion in tax payments.
On the other hand, actual tax revenue was $4.9 billion lower than the unaudited budget. This was mainly due to lower business profits, higher-than-forecast goods imports, lower-than-forecast government consumption and residential investment. These factors were partially offset by higher wage and salary growth as well as growth in employment.
Of the tax payments that customers made this year, 89% were on time, which shows the vast majority of people and businesses voluntarily meet their obligations.
The investment that government made in transforming Te Tari Taake Inland Revenue supported customers by making paying their tax easier.
Revenue is collected efficiently—87% of employment information was processed ‘straight through’ with no need for involvement from our people. This amounts to less effort for customers and revenue for New Zealand that is highly certain from year to year.
Tax is being collected from a customer base that’s grown over the past 6 years in some areas. For instance, we serve 15% more employers than in 2017 and 5% more GST-registered businesses.
We have become more cost-efficient through better equipping ourselves to identify and collect revenue over time. It cost 43 cents this year to collect every $100 in tax revenue, compared to 80 cents in 2015.
| Year | Tax revenue |
|---|---|
| 2023 | $104.5 billion |
| 2022 | $100.6 billion |
| 2021 | $93.8 billion |
| 2020 | $77.7 billion |
While tax revenue increased this year, overdue debt was higher than forecast. We continue to watch this closely - as at 30 June 2023, 44,000 more customers were in debt than in June last year.
Further on, you can read about what we’re doing to help customers in debt resolve their situation.
Overdue general tax debt was 5.3% as a proportion of tax revenue
- 2022: 4.6%
- 2021: 4.5%.