Introduction

Screen shows a Tim standing behind his desk, talking on the telephone saying:

Tim – “Hello, Welcome to Tim’s gym. Tim speaking.”

Tim shuffles papers around on his desk while talking.

Tim “Ahh, yes, yes I think we have a booking there at 3.30 – yep – tai bo class”.

A female customer waves her hands for Tim's attention and then walks away.

Next scene shows Tim in his office, sitting at his desk talking on the telephone

Tim –“oh here you are” (looking at some papers). Nods and reads the information. “ah, how does Wednesday sound for an interview?” Great. OK See you then.” He puts down the phone.

Next scene shows boy sitting on a couch – James is reading a book. His cell phone buzzes. He picks up his cellphone to answer it.

James – “Hello”. Hi Tim. Oh it was great meeting you the other day as well. Really, wow, thanks.

Curent world

World flashes onto screen.

Scene shows Tim at a desk, and James is coming into the room.

Tim –“How are ya”.

James – “good”

They shake hands.

Tim – “Take a seat. Do you have your signed employment agreements?”

James hands them to Tim.

Tim – “fantastic. I also have here your tax code form to fill out and your kiwisaver registration form”. He gives James these forms.

James starts to fill in the forms, following the tax diagram to come to the correct tax code he needs to use. He puts “M” as a tax code.

“Two months later” flashes onto the screen.

Next scene Tim is sitting at his desk in his office looking at a the tax deduction form He fills in the form, writes a cheque, folds them both up and puts them into an envelope.

“Five months later” flashes onto the screen.

Next scene shows James sitting at a table in his home with his partner.

Partner – “what’s that”

James – “It’s from the IRD. There’s some problem with my tax code. I haven’t been making my student loan repayments. What the, they are going to ring Tim. I had better ring them so Tim doesn’t get into trouble.”

Partner – “yeah” and walks away.

James gets on the telephone to call the IRD using the number from his letter.

“Six minutes later” flashes on the screen.

Call centre operator – “Welcome to Inland Revenue Julie speaking, how may I help”.

James – “Hi, I have this letter telling me I'm on the wrong tax code with my student loan. What do I do?”

Call Centre Operator: “Well okay, if you are happy to hold, I will get a few details and look into that for you.”

Next scene shows James holding the phone, waiting, sighing, getting frustrated.

Call centre Operator – ‘”Thanks for holding James, I can see that you were sent a letter because you are currently on the M tax code and you should be on the MSL. If you earn over $19,084 in a financial year you must pay 10c in every dollar you earn over that amount to your student loan. You do this by having a MSL tax code. Your employer is going to update this for you.”

James – “ Oh OK, so there is nothing else I need to do.”

Call centre Operator – “No not at the moment” but at the end of the financial year we will look at how much student loan deductions you have made and how much you should have. In your case, because you have been on the wrong tax code, you will most likely have a bill to pay. You will receive a personal tax summary that will show all of this”.

James – “Ok, when does that happen”

Call centre Operator – “ Not until May next year”. [Note that in 2010, the increasing volume of paper processing faced by Inland Revenue meant that Personal Tax Summaries were not sent out until June or July].

James – “ok, yeah thanks” bye.

James hangs up the telephone and turns to his partner

James: “Um, yeah everything is sorted”

Future world

Tomorrow’s World shows on the screen

Next scene shows a business card from ACME Payroll Software Providers (for all your payroll software needs) left on a keyboard.

Next scene shows Tim behind his desk in his office talking on the telephone, looking at his computer screen.

Tim “Really. It connects straight through to IRD? Really. Through my business IRD number and my bank account. Oh brilliant. It’s so easy. Can I order one please?”

Scene goes to Jim sitting at his desk in his office looking at his computer screen. The ACME accounting business card is showing on the screen.

Next scene shows James sitting at a table in his home with his laptop open in front of him. James starts typing and the screen flashes a message “you’ve got mail” which James opens. A message from Inland Revenue opens up on the screen saying “Hi James, You are soon to start employment. Your new job has been recorded in the Inland Revenue system, and deductions will be automatically made from your pay for PAYE and Student loans. If you want to check the details you can log onto your workspace here.

Next scene shows James smiling typing into his laptop at his home. He then closes his laptop and walks away.