Robyn Walker: Deloitte Tax Partner on businesses owing more than $1.4 billion in unpaid GST and PAYE

A tax expert says there is a concerning trend as businesses owe more and more to Inland Revenue.  

Businesses owe more than $1.4 billion in unpaid GST and PAYE from the 2025 tax year. 

Only $66 million of that is from businesses or individuals that are bankrupt or in liquidation. 

Deloitte Tax Partner Robyn Walker told Mike Hosking the construction sector alone owes about $1 billion.  

She says it is difficult to say how it stacks up against other industries. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you think the job numbers don't sober you up.

(00:01):
What about the money? Oh to IID business is currently
own more than one point four billion. This is GSTN paye.
That's from twenty five tax year. Do you know they're
still owed forty eight million from twenty eighteen? Robin Walker tacks,
partner at Deloitte, Of course back will this Robin very
good morning to you.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Is this any worse than normal if you go back
over years and decades?

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Uh, what's hard to tell from just looking at the reporting,
because they report on what's still outstanding from prior years.
Do they understand like the actual level of debt is
increasing if you look at a year on year the
amount that's being left unpaid. So definitely a concerning trend.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
How much of this is COVID all that money that
flushed out that we didn't think we'd ever pay back
and as it turns out we're not well.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I think that's that's when it all started to turn
in terms of tax debt really taking off because there
was a bit of a mandate to say be kind
and you know, give people some breathing space and actually
give them some more money. Is like a small business
cash flow loan would be a bit weird to say,
I d already giving out a loan to them but
then asking them to pay back their tax at the

(01:04):
same time.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Yeah, construction, I'm assuming is worse than most if you're
breaking it down by sector.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Yeah, certainly in absolute numbers. So there's almost a billion
dollars of tax outstanding from construction. So hard to know
how that sort of stacks up against the other industries
because you don't have the details of how many taxpayers
are in that cluster, but you're definitely an alarming sector.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
How do they handle this, I mean, how much is
on the books as an ode that they think will
be paid versus if you were, you know, having a
quiet drink in a corner you go. You know you're
never going to get that, don't you.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
They do have to do all this sort of assessment
as part of their annual reporting. So of that one
point four that's outstanding, they think that one point two
is collectible. At one hundred and eighty five million is
uncollectible already.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Okay, And how much of that gets put on a
payment system when you come to me and say you
owth three hundred thousand dollars and I say I'll give
you seventeen dollars a week.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
I think IODA has become a lot more pre I
do that contacting people as soon as possible to put
them on payment plants. I think key thing is for
anybody that does have any tax debt is get in
contact with ID as soon as possible, because as soon
as you pay it off, the sooner bad things will
stop happening to you. So if you're not paying your tax,

(02:19):
you're getting interest at ten point eight eight applied to
all of that, you've got a five percent accumulative late
payment penalty being applied. The problem is not actually going away.
You need to pull your head out of the sand
and face your problems.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
Get on your Robin nice to talk to you as always,
Sooner bad things we'll stop happening, so bround things will
stop happening to you.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
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