IRD's $600million mistake

[ActionMan]

Commissioner of Inland Revenue and the head of Treasury had apologised to Cullen over what was a "simple mistake".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4444109a10.html

[CJ]

I had a big chuckle about this.

What is weird though is they didn't try to explain the unexplained big drop in profit. Surely if there was a swing as big as it was, you would do a reconciliation to show why it occured.

[whitt]

How long before the conspiracy thoerists come up with ideas?

Turning a defecit into a surplus in the year of a general election??

[PeterEmpowerEd]

This can happen to anybody.
Just the other day I was looking for something and came across US$300 in notes left over from an overseas trip (... too bad it wasn't a few krugerrands!)

It must be just like that at IRD, y'all. Yeah. I'm sure it is. Just bigger.

[Julian]

I wonder if IRD will apply their own penalties regime to their own mistakes. Me thinks not.
Julian

[Heg]

This can happen to anybody.
Just the other day I was looking for something and came across US$300 in notes left over from an overseas trip (... too bad it wasn't a few krugerrands!)

It must be just like that at IRD, y'all. Yeah. I'm sure it is. Just bigger.

I'd keep it Pete...Who knows - this time next week you could buy a US bank with it.
Change it into Kiwi and you'll be lucky to buy a litre of petrol

[CJ]

Just the other day I was looking for something and came across US$300 in notes left over from an overseas trip (... too bad it wasn't a few krugerrands!)

Must have been a big OSH hazard at the IRD for someone to trip over something on the floor and find it was $600m that had gone missing.

This is a big stuff up. Now that everyone has hindsight, they say they thought it looked wrong but no one actually checked it before publishing it to the market. Why not!

[PeterEmpowerEd]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing...

Now that everyone has hindsight, they say they thought it looked wrong but no one actually checked it before publishing it to the market. Why not!

Never a truer word spoken.

Here's an extract from How to Survive and Prosper in a Falling Property Market:

Do we know the exact timing and extent of this expected
correction? No. But do I believe there will be a correction? Yes.
I don’t think it would take much for it to be an immensely
significant correction with very real implications for investors
and home owners alike.

In my experience, what tends to happen is that the market
changes over time, fundamentals go increasingly awry, slipping
out of whack, then there comes a time when there is lots of
‘noise’ along the lines of: ‘Will-it-or-won’t-it correct?’, and
then some event happens which acts as a trigger, the impact
of which spreads incredibly quickly. Significant numbers of
people will be caught — and afterwards many will say (with
the benefit of hindsight) “Oh yeah. We knew it couldn’t carry
on like that. It was only a matter of time.”

No-one ever loses money in hindsight.

[PeterEmpowerEd]

I'd keep it Pete...Who knows - this time next week you could buy a US bank with it.
Change it into Kiwi and you'll be lucky to buy a litre of petrol

Snort! Nice one, Jo.
I remember when Gareth Morgan said the NZ dollar had "US.35c stamped all over it." How things change.

[artemis]

This is a big stuff up. Now that everyone has hindsight, they say they thought it looked wrong but no one actually checked it before publishing it to the market. Why not!

The IRD boss was on the radio yesterday, said they did do some checking but found nothing so thought it was a blip. Think he said they used a set of out of date Treasury projections.