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Inland Revenue NZ undertook the innovative approach of crowd sourcing their mobile design and ran a nationwide competition seeking ideas to improve and mobilise their service.
I began by researching the business landscape in NZ, reflecting on my own experience as a sole trader and talking to self-filing friends and colleagues. I found that small businesses (<20 employees) make up 97% of businesses in NZ, 70% of these are single-worker businesses - an extraordinarily high proportion! So I spoke to a few people I knew in this situation about their tax management.
Any business turning over more than 60000NZD pa is required to register for GST (Goods & Services Tax) with option of turning in quarterly, biannual or annual returns. Most opt to file quarterly. The administrative burden of these paper-based quarterly returns is high so I decided to focus my proposal on ways to ease this burden.
I proposed an integrated app ecosystem of financial tools for small businesses which help them to run their businesses more effectively and eliminate the repetition and manual aspect of GST filing. As most transactions are handled by visa/debit card, the majority of data required to fill GST returns exists already in electronic format. My proposal focused on ways to integrate and calculate GST cumulatively, requiring minimal checking and confirming according to the tax cycle. I also proposed other supporting tools, such as mileage calculator or tax obligation text reminder service along with transparency tools which would help to show how taxation is spent and the direct impact of paying tax - encouraging compliance and promoting the positive impact of paying tax.
Of over 50 applicants, nationwide six finalists were chosen to present to the Judges including the Commissioner of the Inland Revenue. I was one of the finalists. My presentation was recognised for its user research and insight.
