Monday, 27 January 2025, 4:08 pmPress Release: Nick Mills
Wellington hospitality business owner and radio host Nick
Mills is urging the Revenue Minister and Commissioner of
Inland Revenue to intervene in a failed negotiation to
settle outstanding tax payments.Mr Mills has spent
the past eight months negotiating with the IRD to settle
historic tax issues, but officials have constantly moved the
goal posts.“We managed to raise more than 40% of
the outstanding debt as part of our negotiations, but the
IRD declined to accept that.“It has been incredibly
frustrating and stressful, and we know we’re not the only
ones going through this distressing process.“We
continue to meet our current tax obligations while
supporting many households through our family-owned
business.”Mr Mills said their hospitality outlets
were slammed by Covid, followed by high inflation, high
interest rates, general downturn in Wellington’s CBD and
unfavourable decisions to operating hours in our late-night
venues which had a severe impact on trade.“We have
been in business for more than 40 years, but the last four
years has been particularly challenging. We have fought hard
to stay afloat and meet our financial obligations and will
continue to fight.”Tax lawyer Mike Lennard says
he’s never seen such a dismissive attitude by tax
officials in the three decades he’s worked in the
sector.As a former Director of Litigation at IRD, Mr
Lennard knows what it takes to negotiate successful recovery
of debts, and the current approach is completely
unreasonable.“There has been a gross breach of good
faith negotiations on the part of officials, and this needs
to be addressed
urgently.”
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