Kiwi FinTech entrepreneur Matt Edwards has returned to his homeland to take up the helm of the innovative tax pooling company, Tax Management New Zealand (TMNZ), as Chief Executive Officer.

Matt Edwards left New Zealand 15 years ago after graduating from Victoria University with a commerce degree focused on law and information systems and forged a successful career in the United Kingdom, founding and growing two businesses in the FinTech sector.

He co-founded E-finity Leads, a self-funded, organically grown start-up FinTech business, offering a B2B technology solution enabling financial services firms to market their services more effectively. After selling this business, he went on to co-found Candid (now part of Clark Group), a Pan European Insurtech that offers smartly branded insurance and protection products to a market that had been poorly served in the past.

Now back in New Zealand for family and lifestyle reasons, Matt has joined TMNZ as Chief Executive Officer. TMNZ is a FinTech and New Zealand’s first and largest tax pooling intermediary with up to $10 billion in the pool at any one time. It works with businesses, accountants, and Inland Revenue (IR) to provide solutions which make paying tax easier and more cost effective, while releasing vital working capital into the New Zealand economy.

“Purpose has always been important to me in my career and while I believe our tax pooling service provides an incredible return for New Zealanders, I am also extremely fortunate to have found a business which reinvests 100% of its profits, for good,” Matt Edwards says.

Although TMNZ is a limited liability company with a Board of Directors, 100% of its profits are distributed to the Whakatapu Aotearoa Foundation, which was established in 2020 by Ian and Wendy Kuperus, the founders of TMNZ.

Whakatupu Aotearoa Foundation is a philanthropic organisation working for a restored and thriving New Zealand. It provides catalytic funding to support a wide range of environmental and community-focused organisations such as LiveOcean Foundation, WWF New Zealand, and Hauora Aotearoa.

Thousands of large and small New Zealand businesses rely on and benefit from the TMNZ services. It empowers taxpayers to structure their tax payments in a way which suits their business and cashflow requirements. Tax pooling takes the hassle out of estimating provisional tax and avoids companies overpaying or underpaying their tax to IR.

“Through tax pooling we are essentially freeing up large amounts of capital and making it available again in the New Zealand economy, driving investment, growth and ultimately a better country for everyone,” Matt Edwards says.

Tax pooling gives businesses greater control over their tax payments and the flexibility to free up cashflow. Many of New Zealand’s largest corporations use tax pooling to stabilise their cashflow and reduce interest costs. Matt Edwards says the same service is available to all sizes of businesses either directly with TMNZ or via their accounting provider.

“Tax pooling is particularly beneficial to seasonal business that have a very lumpy revenue profile or those that are in a capital-intensive period and require working capital.”

With his background in FinTech start-ups and digital commerce, Matt Edwards is keen to keep driving forward the tax innovation that TMNZ pioneered.

“I am excited with what the future holds at TMNZ, we will continue to revolutionise the way New Zealand businesses manage their taxes and cashflow requirements,” he says.