Property speculators who are reaping millions of dollars from the super-heated housing market are about to feel the heat from a tough new tax crackdown.
Finance Minister Michael Cullen said Inland Revenue would get an extra $14.6 million over the next three years to strengthen property transaction audits. Speculative activity was driving up house prices and household debt levels, he said. So giving IRD more money would help it enforce the law.
Property auditing gathered $100 million between 2004 and 2006, he said and it was important for IRD to have the resources it needed.
Of the country's 1.4 million houses, around 400,000 are owned by investors. If a landlord buys with the intention of selling, tax must be paid on any financial windfalls.
Sharon Cuzens from Inland Revenue in Wellington yesterday welcomed the boost.
"It will enable us to pursue further, in-depth investigations and education on a risk area we have been actively targeting for some years," she said.
IRD would improve information so people were more aware of their liability, monitor major developments to ensure accurate return of sales or profits, boost research and analysis of risk areas and increase audit activity in areas of identified risk, she said.
One housing investment expert also welcomed the Budget package. Andrew King, Property Investors' Federation vice-president, said speculators who evaded tax were taking high risks. He encouraged those people who were eligible to come clean, declare their profits and pay tax.
"It's like playing Russian roulette if you don't," Mr King said. But he also criticised existing tax law, saying it had too many grey areas.
Matthew Gilligan, an Auckland chartered accountant and specialist tax and legal structures consultant, also welcomed the package, saying IRD was too poor to do its job properly and the money would help.
"They're grossly under-resourced," he said, citing long waiting lists for taxpayers seeking rulings and waiting for investigations to be concluded.
Mr Gilligan, whose firm has 4500 property clients investing in residential housing, called for clearer rules on housing investment tax liability. Many IRD staff were excellent but it was not uncommon for staff to change so fast that some taxpayers were dealing with three IRD staff members over one issue, he said.
"That's not uncommon on an audit." Nor was it unusual for a taxpayer to be given conflicting advice by various IRD staff members, Mr Gilligan said.
Greg Haddon, a Deloitte tax partner, said the $14.6 million was not nearly enough to tackle the issue.
"This extra money won't make a big impact," he said, and failed to address the reasons for so many people investing in housing, because they regarded it as a surer bet than other forms of investment.
IRD has already announced the success of previous crackdowns.
Two years ago, it netted just under $11 million from a campaign in the Queenstown/Otago region. Its concentrated audit blitz on developers and speculators started in March 2004 and by November 2005, it had 120 cases either under investigation or heading for prosecution.
Auckland was also a target two years ago, when IRD said it was increasing resources to hunt down speculators and developers who had kept their profits a secret.
Senior Auckland department official Richard Philp said in January 2005 that an extra $106.6 million was gathered nationally within two years on property transactions, including $52.9 million from Auckland.
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