Peter Dunne

Wellington, June 11 NZPA - The Government would get rid of gift duty if certain concerns can be smoothed out, Revenue Minister Peter Dunne says.

A review of gift duty found a "strong case" for repealing it if concerns around creditor protection and social assistance could be addressed, Mr Dunne said.

Gift duty was introduced to prevent people circumventing estate duty rules, he said.

Estate duty was abolished in 1992.

Gift duty prevents people from gifting away large assets where doing so might undermine creditors interests, minimise tax income of enable access to social assistance.

Mr Dunne said gifting programmes meant little money was being collected in gift duty but there were significant costs to Inland Revenue.

Consultation would take place over the next few months to deal with the remaining concerns.