Third party providers approved to store taxpayer electronic records offshore
A list of third party providers that have received approval to store taxpayer electronic records offshore.
Standard Practice Statement (SPS) 13/01 provides guidelines on the retention of business records in electronic format. The SPS applies to taxpayers who are required to keep business and other records under the Inland Revenue Acts and third parties that hold business records for taxpayers offshore.
The Commissioner’s approval to taxpayers or third parties to store business records offshore applies for obligations under the Inland Revenue Acts. The approval does not apply to any other record retention obligations or controls that may apply between taxpayers and other regulatory bodies or Crown agencies.
The following organisations have been approved under section 22(8)(a) of the Tax Administration Act 1994 (TAA) to store taxpayers' electronic records outside of New Zealand:
| Approved organisations | |
|---|---|
| ActionStep NZ Ltd | Adminis NZ Limited |
| Agilyx NZ Ltd | Ascender HCM New Zealand Limited |
| Automatic Data Processing Ltd | CargoWise NZ Ltd |
| CCH NZ Ltd | Civica Pty Ltd |
| Common Ledger Ltd | Datacom Solutions Limited |
| Elmo Software Limited | Farm IQ Systems Ltd |
| Flexitime Limited | Fund A Future Limited |
| Fusion5 Limited | Hnry Limited |
| iPayroll Ltd | Link Market Services Limited |
| MAGIQ Software Ltd | MMC Group Holdings Limited |
| MYOB NZ Ltd | Payroll Kiwi Ltd |
| PeopleSonic Limited | Reckon NZ Pty Ltd |
| Revolution Software Ltd | Saasu Limited |
| Smartly Limited (SmartPayroll) | Streamline Business NZ Limited |
| TaxLab Ltd |
Tax Snaps Ltd |
| Technology One NZ Ltd |
Thompson Reuters NZ Ltd (formerly Brookers Ltd) |
| Unimarket NZ Ltd |
The Work Shop Limited T/A RIP Global |
| Xero Ltd | |
Taxpayers who store their business records with these approved organisations do not need to obtain approval under section 22(2BA) to store their business records outside of New Zealand. The Commissioner's approval for third party providers to store electronic records offshore, is conditional on the following:
- Information and records stored offshore remain accessible by the Commissioner and do not impede her compliance activities;
- Information and records will be available upon request in an electronic and usable format and at no cost to Inland Revenue; and
- In the event of a service agreement ending between a third party provider and its client, the third party provider will endeavour to return the data to its client in a meaningful and usable format that the client can use for subsequent reference and them to meet their record keeping obligations under the TAA.
Although a third party provider may be used to store business records, taxpayers remain responsible for their tax obligations including retaining business records for the retention period (usually seven years) required under the Tax Administration Act 1994.
Read our Standard Practice Statement 21/02 for further information.