Revenue Minister Todd McClay says Inland Revenue’s new mobile app is simplifying GST filing for small businesses and, already, 7,270 people have downloaded it.
Inland Revenue’s myIR mobile app was developed in collaboration with the winners of Inland Revenue’s crowd-sourcing challenge called APP4IR, a competition to find a way to make it easier for small businesses to interact with Inland Revenue.
The winners of the competition were Wellington friends Matt Innes and Josh Lee who grew up together in the small Rangitikei town of Marton.
“These young men beat off stiff competition to win this contest and went on to work with Inland Revenue and Sush Mobile to develop the app,” McClay says.
“What we have ended up with is an app that is developed by customers for customers.”
MyIR mobile allows people who are registered for GST and myIR online to easily file GST 101 returns (including a nil GST return), pay their tax using credit and debit card, be notified of due dates and update their personal details on their iPhone.
“This is the first version of the app and can currently be used by nearly 50,000 businesses in New Zealand,” McClay adds.
“As more people download and use the app we will be listening to feedback and incorporating that into further iterations.
“We asked customers to help us make myIR mobile great. We’ve since received over 185 emails providing feedback and suggesting further functionality.”
According to McClay, the Government are “determined” to make paying tax simpler.
“People want to be able to interact with government 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is about saving customers time and cutting red tape,” he adds.
“Making life easier for business means government needs to do things differently. MyIR mobile is a real example of how Inland Revenue is responding to customers’ increasing expectations of digital services.”
The app was New Zealand’s number one business app prior to the GST filing date for January, February and March.