Solicitors’ personal undertakings for taxation obligations and the implications for solicitors: the New Zealand experience

Abstract

The Commissioner of Inland Revenue (the Commissioner) is an officer of the Crown, charged by statute with the function of care and management of taxes on behalf of the Crown. In carrying out his statutory function of collecting taxation revenue, the Commissioner is legally obliged to fulfil this role by collecting over time the highest net revenue that is practicable within the law, in relation to the resources available, the importance of promoting taxpayer compliance and the compliance cost of taxpayers. It is pursuant to the exercise of this statutory discretion that the Commissioner is authorised to enter arrangements with taxpayers or their agents for the eventual payment of taxation indebtedness. Such arrangements may include agreements between the Commissioner and taxpayer for the payment of taxation debts by instalments. Worth noting however, is that the Commissioner has recently demonstrated a willingness, not only to accept solicitors’ personal undertakings for the payment of tax debts, but to enforce them when solicitors have chosen to dishonour them.