Inland Revenue says it has options to help people who are overwhelmed and the earlier people contact it, the better.

Hundreds of people are threatening self-harm each year when they call Inland Revenue, though the tax department says such calls are trending down.

Since the beginning of 2016, Inland Revenue has received 822 self-harm threats, about half of which it had reported to police.

Deputy commissioner Mary Craig said it was encouraging Inland Revenue had only received 182 such calls so far this year.

Self-harm calls are trending down, which is encouraging. IRD says.

That was down from 334 such calls in 2016, but was "still too many", she said.

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Spokesman Rowan McArthur said some of the calls were attributable to child support matters, but there were a number of issues that could put people into debt and cause people stress.

Sometimes tax worries were only one of the issues that had built up for callers threatening self-harm, he said.

"Child support would certainly figure in some. It is often an emotional issue. But there are a whole range of kinds of tax debt that can spiral," he said.

Accident Compensation Commission spokesman James Funnell said it also logged all threats of self-harm but did not keep a record of how many such calls it received.

"We do take all threats of self-harm very seriously, and alert the client's GP, or the police, depending on the circumstances," he said.

"We have a guide for staff that is easily accessible on our intranet, and how to handle self-harm calls is a part of induction training.

"We encourage our staff to keep the client call open until a safe responder arrives to their location."

Inland Revenue said it had no information on how many of its callers might be following through on their threats.

"All we can do is focus on our job, which is trying to get people to engage early, before they get to the point of that sort of action," McArthur said.

"That is the main thing to avoid people getting desperate, because we have got ways of helping people and options.

"I get that people are sometimes reluctant to get in touch with Inland Revenue for all sorts of reasons, but there are options – probably more than there have ever been."

Inland Revenue was also doing a lot of work with its staff to try to get them to engage with troubled callers in a way that helped them, he said. The calls were also difficult for staff, he said.

WHERE TO GET HELP:

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Lifeline – 0800 543 354 or (09) 5222 999 within Auckland

Youthline – 0800 376 633, free text 234 or email talk@youthline.co.nz or online chat

Samaritans – 0800 726 666

Suicide Crisis Helpline – 0508 828 865 (0508 TAUTOKO)

What's Up – 0800 942 8787 (for 5–18 year olds). Phone counselling is available Monday to Friday, midday–11pm and weekends, 3pm–11pm. Online chat is available 7pm–10pm daily.

Kidsline – 0800 54 37 54 (0800 kidsline) for young people up to 18 years of age. Open 24/7.

thelowdown.co.nz – or email team@thelowdown.co.nz or free text 5626

Anxiety New Zealand - 0800 ANXIETY (0800 269 4389)

If it is an emergency or you, or someone you know, is at risk call 111.