Financial statements summary (IR10)
The Financial statements summary - IR10 form collects information for statistical purposes. Inland Revenue use this information to evaluate tax compliance risk, to inform policy and for strategic research, and provides it to Stats NZ for the production of national accounts. Completing an IR10 also helps to speed up the processing of tax returns. However, while IR prefers that firms submit an IR10 as an attachment to their mandatory tax forms, the IR10 itself is not mandatory and firms can opt to provide a copy of their financial statements instead of completing an IR10. This option is most commonly taken up by larger firms, such that coverage of the IR10 is largely restricted to small and medium enterprises.
The IR10 has three main sections: a profit and loss statement, detailing various categories of income and expenses; a balance sheet, listing the book value of assets and liabilities; and a section for other information, such as tax depreciation, dividends paid, and additions and disposals of fixed assets.
In 2013 IR undertook a substantial revision of the IR10 return form, replacing the old IR10 Accounts Information form with the new IR10 Financial Statements Summary form. The revision included changes to make it easier for taxpayers to complete IR10s by better aligning the form with firms' financial statements, and changes to the information collected to make them more useful for analytical purposes Revised IR10 financial statements summary (ird.govt.nz).
Fabling and Maré (2019) detail the changes to the IR10 forms, and provide a method of harmonising returns across time and with related information from AES surveys in order to make a longitudinally harmonised dataset for measuring productivity.
IR10 Form (2016 onwards)
IR10 Guide (2020)
