New Zealand - Customs and Excise Bill review

December 2016 | New Zealand

A new era for NZ Customs Service with introduction of Bill

The Customs and Excise Bill, introduced to Parliament in November, has just passed its first reading. This Bill represents a monumental step towards replacing and modernising the current Customs legislation, which is out-of-date and too prescriptive.

The Bill adopts a less prescriptive approach - making it easier for businesses to comply, reducing costs over time, and facilitating more efficient cross-border trade. The proposed changes will also allow the New Zealand Customs Service to be more responsive to evolving business environments and practices.

In this special publication, we summarise some of the key substantive changes affecting importers, exporters and manufacturers contained in the Bill.

Key measures include:

• moves to streamline GST at the border for business importers
• a more flexible disputes regime
• ability to declare a provisional value for imported goods in specified cases
• ability to obtain rulings on more matters including valuation
• more clarity on administrative penalties.

Click on the links provided to read our publication or download the pdf.