IRD vows to track down tax evaders

IRD southern service manager Carson McNeill, of Christchurch, said yesterday the four teams were carrying out comprehensive audits of property transactions.

Already, factual evidence had been found to support strong anecdotal evidence that property speculation was rife in the region.

"There are and have been some very high profiles and big money involved," Mr McNeill said.

Some of that factual evidence appears to have come from property records held by CivicCorp, the agency responsible for Queenstown and Lakes District Council land records.

CivicCorp director Rene Kampman said the IRD audit teams, from Invercargill and Dunedin, had been into CivicCorp and pulled hundreds of files.

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