Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand is delighted to announce that the Associate Minister of Justice has approved its anti-money laundering (AML) class exemption application, for certain tax transfers carried out by accounting practices across New Zealand. 

The exemption is the result of nearly four years’ worth of concerted advocacy by the peak accounting body.   

The AML regime imposes a significant compliance burden on businesses and the exemption recognises that this should not be the case where the activities undertaken create no or low risk of money laundering.  

“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re pleased to see the Government has listened to Chartered Accountants and the wider business community, by approving this exemption,” said CA ANZ NZ Country Head Peter Vial FCA. 

“We fully support the intentions of the AML regime to address money laundering risks, but the regime shouldn’t bury businesses that carry out low risk activities in masses of red tape and compliance. 

“The exemption announced today gets the balance right, by helping to prevent criminals using New Zealand for illegal activities, while enabling lower risk, law-abiding businesses to manage their clients’ tax affairs swiftly and effectively. 

“This has been the result of almost four years of advocacy and engagement between CA ANZ and the Government, so to see this result is really pleasing.   

“The exemption benefits not only accounting practices, but New Zealand taxpayers and businesses of all sizes.” 

A condition of the exemption is that there remains an obligation to perform suspicious activity reporting (SAR) for the specific tax transfers that are included in the exemption. 

“The exemption retains an important check, that businesses must still perform suspicious activity reporting for the tax transfers that are exempt, which gives the New Zealand public confidence that risks are being appropriately mitigated,” concluded Mr Vial. 

The exemption applies from 15 July 2022 for a period of five years.  

It operates to exempt reporting entities from the requirements of the AML Act except suspicious activity reporting for those tax transfers that are included in the exemption. For tax transfers that are not included in the exemption, the full requirements of the Act still apply. 

More information about the exemption can be found at charteredaccountantsanz.com.