Oracle New Zealand has received a $3 million tax refund after settling a long-running dispute with the Inland Revenue Department over its cross-border transactions.
Its May 2023 accounts, lodged with the NZ Companies Office this week, show the software giant received $3.04m.
Oracle NZ was almost in the clear last year when it agreed on draft terms with the tax department over its transfer pricing arrangements – where cross-border transactions involving related parties are done at arm’s length – over what the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) deemed a $20.3m shortfall, excluding penalties, for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 financial years.
Highest-ever revenue
Oracle booked an $8.1m tax adjustment in the May 2022 financial year, which lifted its tax expense to $8.4m from $2m in the prior period.
However, on Sept 22, 2022, Oracle received notice of assessments from the tax department for the 2016 and 2017 financial years, which the software firm objected to.
In total, Oracle's NZ arm's revenue was about $171.6m for the May 2023 year. It had a net profit after tax of $7.65m.
Earlier in the year, the global parent company reported its highest-ever revenue.
Oracle chief executive Safra Catz said Oracle's revenue reached a high of US$50 billion (NZ$81.56b) in the 2023 financial year.
Catz said annual revenue growth was led by cloud applications and infrastructure businesses, which grew at a combined rate of 50%.
When asked, the IRD said section 18 of the Tax Administration Act prevents it from releasing individual taxpayers’ personal tax information.
