This is sort of good news. TheIRD won on wht`at looks to have been a comlicated tax issue.It would be interesting to see what Cactus Kate says: this is her area.

As a mere research clinician, If I can’t explain it back to my advisor and show you how it works on the back of an  envelope, I don’t understand it and should not be involved.

More inetersting is that we needed this windfall to go into surplus. We need to be balancing our budget — even if you are a Keynsian (I’m not) then we are moving into recovery and stimulus is not needed.

lancing the books New Zealand's big four Australian-owned banks and the Inland Revenue Department have announced a settlement of their disputes over structured finance deals that involves the banks paying the government a gross NZ$2.2 billion.This represents 80 per cent of the amounts owed by the banks and is the largest commercial settlement with the IRD in its history. Updated with comment from ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Westpac and the IRDThe settlement follows years of legal fights and two high court rulings in favour of the IRD. The banks will not pay penalties and the full details of the settlement are confidential, although they are paying 80 per cent of the total tax owed plus interest. The amount was enough to boost New Zealand's current account into a surplus in the September quarter for the first time in almost 21 years.

via Four banks to pay IRD $2.2bn – Business – NZ Herald News.