KEY POINTS:
An extra $100 million in unpaid tax has been handed over to the Government from New Zealand rich listers in the past 12 months.
But one tax expert has cast doubts about the sum and the way the money is collected.
Inland Revenue's high-wealth individuals unit monitors New Zealanders with incomes of $50m or more to ensure they are paying their share of taxes.
The unit collected $102m in unpaid tax from 86 "high-wealth individuals" in the year to June, more than triple the $32m collected by the unit the previous year.
The unit tracks "tax aggressive" behaviour that can be used by the rich to avoid tax. Tricks include using tax havens, hiding money in family trusts and tracking profits offshore.
IRD unit head Tracey Lloyd said 10 investigators used a range of research tools to monitor the tax habits of high-wealth individuals. Since its formation in 2003, the unit has extracted $222m in unpaid tax.
This year, the IRD has been investigating the property industry in their search for unpaid tax.
"It is fair to say we are focusing on property dealings," said Lloyd. "We have had some suggestion of discrepancies in the past from that industry."
While the Tax Administration Act prevents the IRD from disclosing details of the 86 people, Lloyd said the majority were in New Zealand.
However, Lloyd said the unit had not made any arrests as a result of its work because there had been no identified cases of tax evasion.
Tax avoidance is legal because it involves changing your finances to your advantage within the law, reducing the amount of tax you have to pay. Tax evasion is the general term for efforts to not pay taxes by illegal means.
Fred Ward, a tax expert at Russell McVeagh, was dubious about the $102m figure. He said: "It doesn't impress me because I don't know where it comes from."
Ward was critical of what he saw as the IRD's long investigation process.
"They keep asking questions and questions and more questions because their attitude is if you are rich you are dodging the system."
But a spokeswoman for the IRD said the department stood by its figures and investigation process.
"The figure has gone up this year because it has included the resolution of some very long and complex cases."
The unit also investigates entities such as trusts and partnerships.
In some cases, an individual has been found to have as much as a dozen entities to investigate.
The IRD has been given a $14.6m funding boost over three years in the budget to strengthen its investigations, particularly in the property sector.
