By LIBBY MIDDLEBROOK
An Auckland couple who lost an estimated $1 million battling Inland Revenue say Government-ordered compensation will go towards debts incurred in the struggle to pay the department.
The Government yesterday instructed the IRD and ACC to share in compensating Jan and Murray Willis after a 14-year tax dispute cost them their engineering business.
The couple were forced to pay $100,000 in ACC levies in 1990 and IRD has only now conceded it was wrong.
IRD Commissioner John Perham unreservedly apologised to the couple during a parliamentary select committee hearing on Wednesday.
"The apology was the main thing," said Mr Willis from his Great Barrier Island home yesterday.
"It was spectacular, but nothing will bring back our health.
"We've effectively lost 10 years of our life. We've been fighting this every day and every minute of our lives for the past decade."
Mr and Mrs Willis ran Engineering Contractors in Auckland, which employed 400 people.
They fell into dispute with the IRD over the ACC categorisation of their workers in the mid-1980s. In 1990, they were told to pay $100,000 or be wound up.
The IRD later published a winding-up order, effectively destroying the business. Other problems included an IRD letter to the couple that police found had been tampered with.
In 1996, the IRD realised its original demand was wrong and that it owed the couple $83,446.
But it took the department 13 months to pay up.
Mr Willis said any compensation would be used to repay loans raised to pay the IRD in the first place.
* If you have experienced a long-term tax dispute with IRD, contact Herald reporter Libby Middlebrook.
Editorial:Taxman ought to pay up and shut up
Couple's payout going to old debt
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