Early Thinking - Operational Governance for trans-Tasman e-Invoicing

Our organisation writes in support of BusinessNZ’s submission to the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment. We wholly endorse the comments made in their submission. We appreciate the opportunity to comment and we look forward to continuing to engage further on the matter in the future.

We would like to congratulate both the New Zealand and Australian Government’s on their commitment to progressing a standardised e-Invoicing framework between our two countries. As an advocate on behalf of over 3,400 businesses in the Lower North Island, many of whom conduct business across the Tasman Sea, we strongly support the initiative shown in developing the trans-Tasman e-Invoicing framework. Using the questions included in the discussion document we have provided our responses below.

Question 1 - What do you consider to be significant policy or legal barriers to the implementation of e-Invoicing in Australia and/or New Zealand?

Our organisation sees the potential for disagreement between New Zealand and Australian governments when it comes to governance details and the processes involved in the implementation of e-Invoicing. Any cross-border project will come across negotiation disagreements, and this venture will be no different. While both countries may have the same outcome in mind, we anticipate there to be some disagreement as to how this goal will be achieved. As our countries have a relatively tight-knit relationship, we would expect any disagreement to be ironed out within the working group before any details are finalised.

We do acknowledge that a formal e-Invoicing arrangement has been officially signed by Ministers in both Australian and New Zealand governments, and this provides an extra incentive for the working group to ensure that the project continues to proceed.

Question 2...

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