One of the major issues associated with taxation are the costs incurred by taxpayers when
they comply with their tax obligations, this is particularly important for smaller business
taxpayers. Compliance costs are found to be regressive, falling with disproportionate
severity on smaller businesses. This trend can be found across the globe and more
importantly, in New Zealand. Prior research has shown that the severity of the
regressiveness has increased over time. The current, “one-size-fits-all”, approach used in
the New Zealand tax system, and others alike, have created undue complexity for small
businesses. This study reviews small business tax regimes and concessions currently
implemented (or proposed) in different countries to relieve the compliance burden for
smaller businesses. Australia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States
have either implemented a separate tax regime, or offers tax concessions to smaller
business taxpayers. New Zealand on the other hand, presents minor ad hoc tax
concessions for small business taxpayers, but since 2009, there have been proposals to
change this system. This study evaluates and compares all the implemented (or proposed)
regimes and concessions of the selected countries. Following from the case studies,
interviews are conducted with tax professionals that have worked closely with smaller
businesses, in order to shed light on the possibility of implementing a similar regime in
New Zealand. The findings show that a small business tax regime has many avenues to
consider, however, there is general consensus that suggests small business taxation should
be kept as simple as possible. This thesis puts forward a baseline for further discussion
and development of a small business regime to reduce compliance costs for smaller
businesses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:canterbury.ac.nz/oai:ir.canterbury.ac.nz:10092/10457 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Ma, David |
| Publisher | University of Canterbury. Accounting and Taxation |
| Source Sets | University of Canterbury |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic thesis or dissertation, Text |
| Rights | Copyright David Ma, http://library.canterbury.ac.nz/thesis/etheses_copyright.shtml |
| Relation | NZCU |
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