The government's Savings Working Group announced yesterday, looks to be at least as much about tax as it is about savings.

The governments preferred option for auditor regulation oversight appears to be based firmly on relying on members of the accountancy profession to give their time for such oversight for free.

The head of last year's Tax Working group has repeated an earlier call for a permanent body to focus on the integrity of the tax system.

The government is not looking at further taxes aimed at the property market, says Finance Minister Bill English.

Two Christchurch orthopaedic surgeons are to appeal in the Supreme Court against a ruling last month which found the combination of company and trust structures they used to minimise their income amounted to tax avoidance.

New Zealand's ministers again raised the issue of trans Tasman recognition of imputing/franking credits with Australian ministers last week - and came away empty handed.

The vexed question of trans-Tasman imputation credits will be on the agenda again at the end of the month when Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visits New Zealand.

The Inland Revenue Department (IRD) has issued a "clarification" of its earlier stance on the GST status of novated futures contracts.

The latest chapter in the long running $3 billion Trinity tax scheme saga has ended with the High Court ruling Accent Management's claim against the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) as an abuse of process.

Finance Minister Bill English last year warned the New Zealand government might have to move more quickly on tax cuts tax "if the Australians decide to do something clever."

Wide ranging legislations to tighten laws governing insolvency practitioners were introduced to Parliament this week.

Just how effective are the Inland Revenue Department's (IRD's) compliance programmes?

That question was examined by the Office of the Controller and Auditor General (OAG) when it recently looked at the IRD's Industry Partnerships Programme.

Inland Revenue has signalled a further shift in its approach on GST when applied to land sales.

It is aiming its guns at "phoenix" property companies which claim GST rebate for inputs but which end up "at the bottom of the harbour" by the time the department comes to collect at the other end of the GST process.

The New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA) has slammed the Inland Revenue Department's (IRDs) latest exposure draft on the deductibility of business relocation costs.

The government's proposed tax changes to attract the sort of investors who will help turn New Zealand into a financial "hub" should be treated with caution, says the New Zealand Institute of Chartered Accountants (NZICA).

Further rulings have emerged on the issue of highly paid professionals splitting their income through companies and other entities.

Tax options to help New Zealand set up an international finance sector "hub" are being canvassed in an options paper from the Inland Revenue Department.

The mammoth review of Australia's tax system could be released later this week  - and it will have big implications for New Zealand.

The review of how profit distribution plans (PDPs) are taxed is has been put back in the wake of the Capital Markets Development Task Force.

More hints have come on where the government is heading on tax changes.

This time, it was Treasury secretary John Whitehead's turn to drop some nudges and winks.