A lot of Inland Revenue’s time is spent working out people’s annual income and tax amounts when often only a small refund or debt results. This work can prevent Inland Revenue from helping other people with bigger problems.

Andrew was made redundant part–way through the year.
He has fallen behind in his mortgage repayments but has worked out that he is entitled to a substantial tax refund. Despite sending his tax return in several weeks ago, he’s still waiting for his refund.
 

Inland Revenue will re-prioritise its resources to areas where it can best help people. One way of doing this will be treating PAYE deductions as a final tax for some people.
PAYE is very accurate for people who work for 11 or 12 months of the year, and the resources taken to deal with tax returns for this group is disproportionate to the value received. Under the proposal, PAYE will be treated as a final tax for this group, so there will be no need for them to file a tax return. This will free Inland Revenue’s resources to deal with other issues of more benefit to its customers.
People who work for 10 months or less will still be able to file returns. The proposal that PAYE be a final tax will not apply to people like casual agricultural workers where deductions are very approximate.
People will still be able to file returns (and in some cases, will be required to file) if they have other income or losses to which PAYE does not apply, but if they have worked for 11 or 12 months then no square-up will be made of tax deductions for their PAYE income.
 

Andrew was made redundant part–way through the year. He has fallen behind in his mortgage repayment but has worked out that he is entitled to a substantial tax refund. He submits his tax return and the refund is paid into his bank account soon after.