Inland Revenue Department (IRD; ) is the public service department of New Zealand charged with advising the government on tax policy, collecting and disbursing payments for social support programmes, and collecting tax.
Inland Revenue started out as the Land Tax Department in 1878. The department was renamed the Land and Income Tax Department in 1892 with the central office set up in Wellington.
Only in 1952, when the organisation joined with the Stamp Duties Department, was the organisation known as the Inland Revenue Department.
In 1995, a Rewrite Advisory Panel was established to consider and advise on issues arising during the rewriting of the income tax legislation, as part of New Zealand tax reform arising from the Working Party on the Reorganisation of the Income Tax Act 1976. The panel was disestablished in 2014 at the completion of the tax reform.
Inland Revenue's MÃÂori name, , means 'The Department of Tax'. Despite long vowels in MÃÂori now being most commonly expressed with macrons over the vowel rather than double vowels, the department continues to use the double vowel due to the resemblance of the word ' to the English word take.
In 2021âÂÂ22, Inland Revenue collected $100.6 billion in tax revenue, which helped pay for the services that all New Zealanders benefit from such as social security and welfare, health and education. Other services included law and order, housing and community development, environmental protection, defence, transport, and heritage, culture and recreation.
In recent years, Inland Revenue has undergone business transformation activities aimed at simplifying the tax and social benefits process of receiving and paying taxes. As of 2019, these changes have resulted in a reduction of $60 million in administrative costs and an increase of $90 million in additional revenue through compliance and reduced effort for small to medium-sized businesses. In 2021, further business transformation activities were undertaken, including an upgrade to myIR, their secure online service, which has made it easier for customers to manage their tax and payments online.
In 2020, Inland Revenue delivered a change to the revenue system for individuals where every taxpayer account for income tax, Working for Families, KiwiSaver, student loans and the end-to-end processing of PAYE moved into Inland RevenueâÂÂs new tax and revenue technology system.
The department administers the following social support programmes:
Legislation administered by Inland Revenue includes:
Inland Revenue has been criticised for what are seen as heavy handed tactics when forcing payment from debtors, specifically those owing tax arrears and child support payments, and for charging excessive penalties on debts which result in debtors falling into a cycle whereby they are unable to pay the growing amounts they owe. The approach of Inland Revenue has been implicated in a number of suicides and other acts of self-harm.
The number of people threatening self-harm in phone calls to Inland Revenue has trended down consistently over the last three years. Between January and August 2019, 168 people contacted Inland Revenue threatening self-harm. That compares to 292 for the 2018 calendar year; 306 for 2017; and 334 for 2016.
In mid-December 2025, the business journal National Business Review (NBR) banned Inland Revenue from taking out any subscriptions after the government department breached NBR copyright by sharing 22 paywalled articles among several staff members. While Inland Revenue had a group subscription for 220 staff members until March 2024, this had been replaced by a single subscription for a member of its media team. NBR co-owner Todd Scott confirmed that the journal had adopted a policy of pursuing subscribers for copyright violations of its content. In response, Inland Revenue had offered to pay NBR the sum of NZ$12,500 including GST in redress. NBR regarded the offer as insufficient and proposed a counter-offer, which Inland Revenue declined to pay. In January 2026, National Business Review confirmed that it would pursue legal action against Inland Revenue through the District Court in order to recover the costs of a full group subscription, which NBR co-editor Hamish McNichol estimated to be worth NZ$36,000 plus GST.
The Minister of Revenue is the political office of minister for the department of Inland Revenue. Since November 2023, the position has been held by Simon Watts.