IRD starts to crack down on unpaid overseas student loan debt

The Inland Revenue department has doubled the size of its team responsible for chasing down overseas-based student loan debt and is taking more legal action in both New Zealand and Australia. Overdue student loan debt has grown to a record $2.37 billion dollars - with $2.2 billion of that owed by overseas borrowers - most of whom are based in Australia. Only 29 percent of all overseas student-loan borrowers met their repayment obligations in the past 12 months. Inland Revenue was allocated 116 million dollars in this year's Budget to bolster compliance and enforcement, with some of that ring-fenced specifically for overdue student loan debt. The rest of the funding is being used across other areas of the tax system including cryptocurrency, trusts, the so-called hidden economy and organised crime. Andrew Stott, Marketing and Communications group manager at the IRD, discusses the department's compliance work with Susie.