The Inland Revenue Department has turned its attention to the hospitality industry in its latest campaign targeting undeclared income.
The industry is considered a high risk group as part of the IRD's long running hidden economy programme against tax crime.
Richard Philp, customer segment lead, said there's a disproportionately high number of overdue GST, income tax and PAYE payments from traders in the restaurant, café, bar and takeaway food sectors.
"Commonly we find those operators who fall behind on their tax obligations also have poor business records," he said.
"We see things like unrecorded sales, staff wages off the books and discrepancies between supplies bought and goods sold."