A tax expert has warned of "teething issues" as IRD implements major changes that will affect thousands of Kiwis as of April next year.
The changes will see about 115,000 New Zealanders receive a tax bill for the first time next year.
Terry Baucher told TVNZ's Breakfast the new system may open the doors for phone scammers and email scammers and advises people to expect a legitimate call from IRD.
"I would say to people be patient, don't be surprised by the way IRD contact you because they'll want to confirm bank account details, because the system now won't be issuing cheques they'll be wanting to make direct credit refunds," he says.
"People (scammers) might ring up saying 'I'm from the IRD we just want to check your details'."
He says the best thing you can do to avoid being scammed is join IRD's system MyIR or use a voice activation ID system and verify those details yourself.
"There will be a few teething issues, this is a huge system Inland Revenue are transitioning to," Mr Baucher says.
The other issue people might encounter, he says, is there is no real clear rules about what happens if someone gets their details wrong.
"If either you make a mistake when the details are entered or someone else does, changing those errors, you might find IRD are sending you a demand to pay and its wrong, but changing that is out of the IRD's discretion and that is something that may need to change." Mr Baucher says.
It's expected 720,000 people will get a refund and of that number 115,000 are going to get a tax bill for the very first time.
When legislation supporting changes is passed, IRD will automatically issue a refund or a tax payment after March 31 next year for people on PAYE who don't normally have to file a tax return.
"It could be as little as $20, but it also could be quite substantial $700 or more."
Mr Baucher says the Government estimates $50 million dollars of tax that could have been collected wasn't, because it was "voluntary" and Inland Revenue didn't have the systems to find it.
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