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Easy to pay tax NEW Zealand has been ranked ninth out of 178 nations in a new report on the easiest places for businesses to pay taxes.The report, 'Paying Taxes 2008'ranks tax systems across a number of indicators including total tax rate, time taken to comply with tax rules, and the number of required tax payments. New Zealand's ranking in the top ten, puts it well ahead of some of its most important trading partners including the UK (12), the US (76), Australia (41), and Canada (25). The report by the World Bank was further evidence that New Zealand was one of the best places in the world to do business, Finance Minister Michael Cullen and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said in a joint statement. "As a small country, we have to do all we can to remain competitive in a global business environment," they said. The government had remained focused on taking steps to reduce compliance costs, making New Zealand's regulations smarter, and to build a "fair and simple tax system." The World Bank had singled out New Zealand as among a very small number of countries whose business tax systems could be 'successfully emulated' by others. In Budget 2007, the government introduced a comprehensive Business Tax Package that lowered the company tax rate from 33 to 30 per cent, introduced substantial tax credits for research and development, reformed international tax rules, and increased assistance for market development programmes. A finding of the report was that not only was New Zealand's business tax environment among the best in the world, it was "substantially" better than that of Australia, the ministers said. "The report finds that Australian businesses pay more total tax, make more annual tax payments, and spend 37 more hours a year to pay their taxes than their New Zealand counterparts," they said. |
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