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Setting the ESCT rate for the next tax year is a 1 April activity that Payroll are responsible for.  As part of your payroll checks and balances, you must check your payroll system is doing as expected. If you are processing payroll manually, you will need to set the ESCT yourself.  Understanding how ESCT is essential to getting this right for anyone involved in payroll. What is ESCT? ESCT (Employer…  Read more

Remediation of your payroll system can seem extremely intimidating.  There is a lot involved in the process of checking payroll for Holidays Act 2003 compliance.  This information comes from the FAQ section of the Labour Inspectorate website so we thought we would share some of this here. How far back should re-calculations go? Once non-compliance with the Holidays Act 2003 is identified, the expectation of the Labour Inspectorate is that…  Read more

It’s almost the end of the Financial Year (again? I know we say this every year, but doesn’t time just fly by?) Here is a summary of the 1st April 2024 changes you need to know:   Minimum Wage Increase: The Adult minimum wage will increase from $22.70 per hour to $23.15 per hour The Starting Out/Training wage will increase from $18.16 per hour to $18.52 per hour   ACC…  Read more

For small businesses in today’s competitive market, outsourcing can offer a range of advantages. Not only does it reduce costs and free up valuable time for owners to focus on growing their business, but it also provides access to skills and expertise that may be unavailable in-house. By working with external professionals or firms who work in certain areas, small businesses have the opportunity to streamline operations, increase productivity and…  Read more

If you’re a business owner or taxpayer in New Zealand, you’ve likely encountered terms like ‘no GST’ and ‘zero-rated GST’ transactions. These terms refer to specific tax treatments under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system in New Zealand. In this blog post, we’ll break down these concepts in simple terms to help you understand the difference. No GST transactions No GST transactions are those where the goods or services…  Read more

Small business owners in New Zealand often make common mistakes when it comes to GST. These mistakes can lead to penalties and unnecessary stress. By understanding the common pitfalls and taking steps to avoid them, small business owners can ensure they are compliant with GST regulations and avoid costly mistakes.

Provisional tax is an important aspect of managing a business’s finances and tax obligations. It allows businesses to make progress payments on their upcoming income tax, based on their expected profits for the following year. This can help businesses manage their cash flow and avoid the pressure of paying a lump sum at the end of the year. For new businesses, the first-year provisional tax payment can be challenging. However,…  Read more

With the end of the financial year approaching, it’s a good time to make sure everything is in order and ready for balance date. Here’s a few things to consider and/or action for the end of year the financial year. Write off Bad Debts Do you have debtors that you’ve taken all reasonable steps to recover a debt, yet your customer still hasn’t paid you? You might be able to…  Read more

Depending on the nature of your business, you may have workers who are employees or contractors, or you may have both. Each has their merits, but it’s important to review which are which in order to meet your tax obligations. When you have an employee, you must withhold income tax as well as report on additional benefits. Contractors generally look after their own tax obligations. It’s against the law to…  Read more

The Fair Pay Agreements Act 2022 (FPA Act) has been passed, and will come into effect quickly, on 1 December 2022. The new Act is the biggest change to employment law since the Employment Relations Act 2000. What is a fair pay agreement? A fair pay agreement is an agreement that applies to all workers across entire industries or occupations. It will provide minimum terms and conditions of employment for…  Read more

The government have decreed that Monday 26th September 2022 will be a public holiday to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II.  But what does that mean for you as the employer? If your staff member normally works on a Monday, then this is an ‘otherwise working day’ for them and they will be entitled to be paid for that day off and paid at their relevant daily pay (RDP)…  Read more

Did you know there are over 27 Legislative Acts involved in payroll – insane right? So, isn’t it interesting to know that most small businesses have an untrained staff member processing payroll for their team? Payroll is not the back-office data entry job that a lot of people think it is.  In fact, when you start to understand the rules and regulations around payroll, you may be right in thinking…  Read more

The Inland Revenue have published the mileage rates for business use of a motor vehicle for the 2022 year. Helpful for those doing income tax returns for the 2022 year, not so helpful for those of us who reimburse employees for using their personal vehicles in the course of their employment on behalf of the business. For those reimbursing employees, you can use actual costs, IRD mileage rates, or rate…  Read more

In the last few days of March and the following weeks, there are some steps you can take to prepare for when you receive your Annual Accounts questionnaire from your accountant.   Bank Transactions Have you coded all your transactions? Make sure you code and account for all of your bank transactions for the year. This should be done on a regular basis anyway, but it’s a good opportunity to…  Read more

Inland Revenue have released an interpretation statement on this one recently. Next time you grab a coffee or a meal at your local café in between back-to-back client meetings and think about claiming this as an expense because you are self-employed and it’s just part of your work day, think again. New Zealand’s Inland Revenue has confirmed that these expenses are not deductible for self-employed taxpayers in all but very…  Read more

A lot of people this year are finding that once their income tax assessment has been calculated automatically they end up having tax to pay – and suddenly it’s panic stations! (Don’t worry, this happened to me and I did the same!). There may be a reason for it! In the Financial Year Ended 31 March 2021, there were 53 weekly pay periods, as opposed to 52 weekly pay periods.…  Read more

The increase of the minimum sick leave entitlement from 5 days per year to 10 days per year will come into effect on 24th July 2021. What does this mean for you and your employees? For existing staff they will get the increase of entitlement on their next sick leave anniversary (not automatically on 24th July) For new staff they will get this on their 6 month anniversary The maximum…  Read more

Some of you may have realised that Xero has instigated compulsory Multifactor Authentication for logging into their software.  You can either use a generic authentication app or Xero have made their own app to help with this. Xero Launches Xero Verify Xero has launched its own authentication app, Xero Verify, to give small businesses world-class data protection. The new app makes it easy for users to set up multi-factor authentication…  Read more

This is something we hear a LOT!  Along with the old myth about only paying tax once you earn more than $5,000… It’s important to understand the differences between a hobby and a business. A small side hustle you’ve been doing for years could actually be a business for tax purposes, and you may be accumulating tax debt without realising it. A hobby is generally something you do in your…  Read more

Anyone with staff knows the frustrations that the complexities of the current Holidays Act legislation creates.  The Government set up a Taskforce to review the Holiday Act in May 2018, which was made up of employer, employee and government representatives. There was widespread non-compliance with the Holidays Act 2003 and it was generally accepted that this is due to issues with not only the legislation, but the implementing of the legislation…  Read more