We want to let you know about a recent change to the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) Authority to Act requirements, and what we have done to make sure you continue to get IRD Authority in 2Shakes.

If you don’t use 2Shakes to get IRD Authority you can ignore this update, thanks.

What’s changed?

IRD has published a new Authority to Act (A2A) Operational Statement, which you can read here.

When you are getting IRD A2A in 2Shakes, you should be aware of the following:

• The IDV requirements have been brought in line with those in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation and guides.
• We have made a couple of wording changes in 2Shakes to make it obvious how your A2A’s comply, especially for Sole Traders.
• We have updated the consent statement to exclude two more accounts you can’t link to.
• We now capture the position of all people in a single-entity agreement (multi-entity Agreements are not affected)

Please see below for more information on all of these areas.

ID Verification Requirements

The new policy requires you to carry out ID Verification of your client.  

You can either carry out ID Verification in line with AML requirements, or follow the process in the Policy document.

The good news is 2Shakes already requires you to carry out IDV when Government Authority is captured, regardless of whether you do AML or not.

For those of you who are not AML Reporting Entities, please ensure you meet the requirements of AML or the IRD Policy.

In 2Shakes there are three ID Verification options:

• Biometric+Electronic IDV: This is where we Biometrically verify the person against their ID Document, then electronically verify the data.  2Shakes defaults to Biometric+Electronic, which we know meets the AML requirements of:
• The IDV Code of Practice (IDVCOP) and
• The July 2021 Updated Explanatory note to the IDVCOP.
• Electronic IDV: Standard electronic IDV can still be used where you are carrying out your own additional measures to link the person to the identity they are claiming. Remember to record those additional measures in Notes & Files.
  
  
• Manual IDV: This is where you do all the ID Verification in line with the IDVCOP and Explanatory Note yourself, store the records in Notes & Files, and tick the IDV Done box when you are finished. It relates to Parts 1 and 2 of the IDVCOP (Documentary IDV and Document Certification).
  

Wording Changes

We have made a couple of wording changes which were needed for Sole Traders.  To help with clarity (and ease of compliance during review) we have made the changes for everyone, even where they don’t strictly need to.

• Trading Name:  We always had both the Legal Name and Trading Name in the Agreement Parties section.   We have now added the Trading Name to the Authorities area too.
  
  
• Staff or Contractor:  Clients now give authority to you “and staff or contractors”.  Again, this is now required for Sole Traders, but makes sense to have for everyone.

Consent Statement

Our default IRD Consent Statement allowed you to link to all accounts except Child Support.

In line with the new policy, we have also excluded Paid Parental Leave and KiwiSaver accounts.

If you use the default wording in 2Shakes we have updated this for you. you should go to your Business Profile>Authorities and check.

If you have changed the default wording we can’t update it in case we overwrite other changes you have made.  Please go to your Business Profile>Authorities and make the change, thanks.

Remember – checking or changing your profile above only needs to be done once for your practice, and requires admin access.

Single-Entity Agreements

It is important that all people signing for an entity have their position provided.

In a multi-entity Agreement, the Main Signatory is signing for all organisations, and their Position/Role is already captured.

In a single-entity Agreement, if more than one signatory is needed, 2Shakes now asks you to enter the position of all additional signatories when they are added.

Other Considerations

As well as the above, there may be some areas of the new Operational Statement that optionally apply to your practice.  We recommend reviewing the document, and updating the IRD Consent statement in Business Profile>Authorities if necessary.

Renewals

If you are doing a renewal, please remember to turn back on the IRD Authority on Page 3 – Authorities to capture the new wording.

Please note: The Operational Statement mentions “tick-boxes” for electronic authority.  That relates to selecting “ALL Accounts” versus a sub-set of specific accounts. Since the consent statement in 2Shakes already specifies which accounts, choosing accounts via a tick box is not required or applicable. Your client is still authorising via the tick box.  If you do only want to get authority for a subset of accounts, please just update the wording of the consent statement itself.