How to Negotiate with the IRD

Now is the best time to negotiate with the IRD about your student loan debt. In September the IRD becomes super busy  and this may mean delays in dealing with your case and that it does not get the attention it deserves. Here are some general principles:

• Under some circumstances, the IRD can write off penalty interest and/or ordinary interest. You need to find out how much of each has been charged to your account and whether you have grounds for a write off.
• Some people can get large write offs.
• If you have grounds, and if there is a potentially available write off, the IRD usually has some leeway in how much they will grant you within the leeway zone. "How much" can be affected by your circumstances and other aspects of the case.
• In some cases, ongoing negotiations produce improved results, but generally the IRD has a limit to how often they will engage with a particular debtor before they refuse to engage further and escalate the case to legal.
• If you don't have grounds, don't waste your time by asking for something the IRD can't give. If you don't like the limits that the IRD has for write offs, complain to the politicians who created the system. The IRD is the collection agency for the New Zealand government. It is the New Zealand government that has made the laws that have created enormous debts, bloated with billions of dollars of interest.
• Your debt probably took years to reach the level it is at now and it usually can't be resolved in an instant. Although it is often possible to resolve things with the IRD within 2-3 weeks, sometimes it takes much longer. 

​Whatever the details of your case, we will have seen many similar fact and debt situations before because we deal with so many student loan debtors. This means that we can quickly tell you what your realistic options are. Being fully informed can make a big difference.