Inland Revenue’s myIR mobile app was developed in collaboration with the winners of Inland Revenue’s crowd-sourcing challenge called APP4IR, a competition to find a way to make it easier for small businesses to interact with Inland Revenue.

The winners of the competition were Wellington friends Matt Innes and Josh Lee who grew up together in the small Rangitikei town of Marton. The 24 year olds are excited their ideas have come to life in an app that will benefit small businesses.

“These young men beat off stiff competition to win this contest and went on to work with Inland Revenue and Sush Mobile to develop the app.

“What we have ended up with is an app that is developed by customers for customers,” says McClay.

MyIR mobile allows people who are registered for GST and myIR online to easily file GST 101 returns (including a nil GST return), pay their tax using credit and debit card, be notified of due dates and update their personal details on their iPhone.   

“This is the first version of the app and can currently be used by nearly 50,000 businesses in New Zealand. As more people download and use the app we will be listening to feedback and incorporating that into further iterations.

“We asked customers to help us make myIR mobile great. We’ve since received over 185 emails providing feedback and suggesting further functionality,” says McClay.

“We are determined to make paying tax simpler. People want to be able to interact with government 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is about saving customers time and cutting red tape.

“Making life easier for business means government needs to do things differently. MyIR mobile is a real example of how Inland Revenue is responding to customers’ increasing expectations of digital services,” says McClay.

The app was New Zealand’s number one business app prior to the GST filing date for January, February and March.

IRD wants to hear your ideas for making tax simpler by joining the discussion at www.makingtaxsimpler.ird.govt.nz