Belief we need to beef up our mechanisms to address the costly "phoenix" problem

Think tank The New Zealand Initiative says Inland Revenue's writing off hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate tax debt every year - from companies that dissolve before restarting under a new name.

Executive Director Oliver Hartwich says our system acts too late, in pushing companies into insolvency.

He suggests we make personal liability automatic within a specific time frame - incentivising directors to pay attention to their tax bills.

Hartwich says this would work better - and would prevent us from building up this enormous amount of tax debt long term.