The murderer who embarrassed New Zealand law and border authorities by flying to Brazil while on temporary release from prison has been convicted for the audacious escape. Charges of escaping lawful custody and making a false statement to renew a passport have been added to Phillip John Smith's lengthy criminal record, along with murder, child sex abuse, kidnapping, tax fraud and arson. In an unusual legal procedure, a jury was chosen at the Auckland District Court today and the judge immedia...

Incompetence? Dodgy dealings? Laziness? No - it's the IRD. If someone was running around hitting people over the head with sledgehammers just for the sake of it, you'd be right to be concerned. And concerned we should be, because that's exactly what the IRD have been doing. It's alarming, and both unnecessary and counterproductive. Following the global financial crisis, the IRD have become extremely aggressive on tax collection, to the extent that they are forcing people into bankruptcy and bu...

The two Wellington accountants who were last year handed the longest jail terms in a New Zealand tax case are appealing their convictions, claiming Inland Revenue trained their clients in evidence against them. David Ingram Rowley and Barrie James Skinner were last year jailed for eight and eight-and-a-half years respectively, after Justice Kos found them guilty on dozens of charges of fraud, tax evasion and attempting to pervert the course of justice. During sentencing Justice Kos also said the pai...