Inland Revenue has sought to clarify the deductibility of employee-related costs incurred due to the Covid-19 pandemic. We share more here.

Two changes to the Small Business Cashflow Scheme (SBCS) came into effect on Monday 21 March 2022.

The COVID-19 Short-Term Absence Payment is available for businesses, including self-employed people, to help pay their workers who cannot work from home while they wait for a COVID-19 test result.

Almost two years into a global health crisis that many could not have imagined in their lifetime, the concept of lockdowns, working from home, a fading connection to the workplace, and the overwhelming feeling of burn-out is driving a surge in resignations in many countries. Is this likely in NZ?

When you have employees working from home, communication becomes more important than ever. Adding another tool may seem like a further complication right now, but this tool might be useful for your team.

Many employers are implementing initiatives to thank employees that get vaccinated. This is in an effort to help the country achieve vaccine targets. But what is the tax implication for those employers?

The Delta variety of Covid could easily have been called Covid-20 or Covid-21. Now would seem a good time to be thinking about how this disease is going to affect your business into the future and what you’re going to do about it, if anything.

Remote workers? Make sure you have strong communication channels, and robust systems to support your flexible workers and ensure continued productivity for your business.

Lockdowns and increased accommodations for work-life balance mean many businesses have employees working full or part-time from home. Talk to us about whether your company can claim home office expenses.

Businesses affected by the recent Wellington Alert Level 2 may be eligible for Government financial support. There is also support for people who cannot work from home while a business may be closed or who are self-isolating.

There is a range of additional and extended support available to NZ businesses in light of the recent change in Alert Levels.

While a number of Government initiatives to assist businesses have ended, there is some financial support still on offer. We share information here.

Here’s how you should be treating employee reimbursements for tax for those working from home this year

On 10 November, the Government announced changes to the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme.

If you’re an iwi, hapū or community that has a social initiative to keep NZ safe and resilient, you should check out this new fund worth $40million to support community and social initiatives, marae, community facilities, heritage, environment activities, outdoor safety, health research and individuals with disabilities.

The $10million Māori Trustee Top-Up Small Business Cashflow Loan Scheme, has been extended until 31 December 2020. To date almost $1m has been paid to Māori-owned SMEs.

There’s no magic bullet to building a better business; it’s about taking small steps every day to get a bit better than the day before - it all adds up! Get in touch to find out more.

With a completely different business landscape in front of us, business owners are under increasing strain. If you are being kept up at night deciding what the best strategy is, get in touch. We are here to help.

How do you set attainable sales targets in a crisis? We’ll talk you through your business aims, profit goals, and historic sales performance, to set targets that truly deliver on your goals.

With more than 85 percent of SMEs expecting a lower profit in the next nine months, the more prepared you can be for the unexpected, the better. Talk to us about smart ways to get your costs under control or whether you need to increase your prices. We share thoughts here.

A strong company culture underpins all successful, resilient businesses. But how do you develop and maintain a good company culture? We share some This article has some top tips.

If your business is looking at restructuring and possible redundancies, you need to understand the difference so you can get the process right and avoid complications, delays, or personal grievance claims.

Debt is a business risk, but it is also a positive tool that is usually necessary to fund your growth. When debt levels grow, we can help you put a plan in place to manage it.

Does your business need to improve its cash position? Poor cashflow is a problem for many businesses, whether you’re a start-up or an established family business. Talk to us about how you can get proactive with cashflow management.

How do you adapt the traditional working day to suit a remote workforce? The best place to start is to ask employees for their feedback. Here are some common practices that don't replicate to the home office.

Struggling with long virtual meetings? We all feel energised after an effective meeting, so keep your team productivity high by running better meetings.

Research shows that doing something (no matter how small) is the best way to manage anxiety. There is a lot we can’t control right now but there are also things you can. Here are some ideas.

The Ministry of Social Development has a team of 120 auditors who are now auditing businesses on their use of Wages Subsidy payments.

Cash is oxygen for your business and measuring working capital is your regular health check to keep your business alive; especially in turbulent times.

Need to reinvent your expenses? We’ll review your current costs, find the expenses that could be cut, and will provide a proactive spend management programme to reduce your spending.

Need to revisit your business plan? We can help guide you through the threats and opportunities that lie ahead, with sound financial management at the core of your plan.

We believe having a budget is essential for business success. Talk to us about creating a useful budget in your accounting software as a practical business management tool. We’d love to help you start planning for a great 2021 financial year!

Growing electronic connectivity between small businesses, accountants, and financial institutions coupled with cloud accounting and traditional methods will help your debtor management.

Do you know how your website is performing, and where online visitors come from? If you are serious about exploring your online analytics, Google has courses that teach you the basics, so you can enhance your online presence.

Technology can be transformative: improving leverage, consistency, efficiency, risk management, induction and training, scalability and saleability. What software have you adopted Post Covid as part of your Business Recovery Plan?

The Covid-19 crisis has created a ‘new normal’ for businesses. Traditional ways of working are being challenged and we now need to innovate, adapt, re-engineer, and reinvent the way we work.

How well do you understand your revenue drivers? We can help you review the numbers in your business, identify your revenue drivers, and will help you enhance your total revenue as a company.

They say never waste a good crisis… and, that if there is a better way to do something (think stale processes), find it now, when the fan is already covered in proverbial. 

Businesses affected by COVID-19 can apply for support through the Government’s wage subsidy scheme. Those still affected have until 11.59pm on 1 September 2020 to apply

With many businesses struggling to achieve pre-Covid sales levels, and the potential for unemployment to spawn a new breed of start-ups, having a customer retention plan has never been more important.

How will you innovate, re-engineer, adapt or widen your lane post-Covid? From tech adoption to product development and blowing up stale processes; a crisis forces change. How are you innovating for your business recovery?

The Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the inadequacy of current cash reserves for many business owners - they simply don’t have enough cash to sustain the business in a crisis.

Many commercial lease arrangements in New Zealand have been affected by the response to COVID-19. Tenants may be unable to pay their rent as their business is not fully operating or generating sufficient income. Landlords may also be unable to meet their mortgage payments.

Some employers have made, or intend to make, payments to employees to reimburse costs incurred by their employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Inland Revenue has clarified the tax treatment of such payments made from 17 March 2020 to 17 September 2020.

The Government is extending the Wages Subsidy with applications opening on 10 June 2020.

Business debt hibernation is a government initiative that helps companies, trusts, and other business entities affected by COVID-19 to manage the debts they currently have.

A cash flow forecast is an important tool for business planning. And right now, understanding the cash coming in and going out of your business is vital.

It’s not easy to request payment right now but it is important to keep cash flowing into your business. As with all business dealings at them moment, a little empathy and a lot of open communication can go a long way.

Keeping your relationships with suppliers positive is crucial if you rely on them to help you keep your customers satisfied. Here’s some suggestions to keep things on a steady course.

Keeping everything running is the priority for now, whether you’re in recovery or growth mode. Regular cashflow forecasts will help you make informed decisions. And controlling your costs will potentially free up cash. We share more here.

The more you understand about your business, your market and your competitors, the better prepared you are. A simple SWOT analysis can be an invaluable tool in your strategic armoury.

What could your business look like from here? Can you streamline your setup for smooth, secure online interaction? Talk to us about building sustainability in your business.

In addition to the tax loss carry-back scheme, the New Zealand Government has introduced various tax changes to assist businesses and individuals to get through COVID-19.

As part of the Government’s Covid-19 response, on 30 April 2020 legislation was passed under urgency that allows tax losses to be offset against income derived in a previous year, thereby enabling the taxpayer to obtain a refund comprising prior year income tax paid. This temporary tax loss carry-back scheme is available to most taxpayers, e.g. trusts, companies and individuals.

The challenges surrounding our current business environment caused through the COVID-19 pandemic has made many owners question whether the structure of their business is still fit for purpose.

As we’ve moved through our COVID-19 alert levels, it’s taken some time for the rules to be refined and communicated. Not to make light of the importance of the rules, other countries have adopted some ‘interesting’ lockdown directions.

As New Zealand moves down the COVID-19 alert levels businesses face a long transition period from the unknown to the ‘new normal’.

From 11.59pm on Wednesday 13 May, New Zealand moves into Level 2. Here’s some key points.

Here are 10 tips to improve your business performance. Eliminate distractions and bad customers, get a plan, use tech, deploy marketing and understand your business numbers. 

Your website is usually the first place a new customer will go when they are looking for your products and services. Use your homepage to update your customers on how they can continue to buy from you.

Working from home? The commute’s a breeze, the pantry is on tap and you haven’t ironed a business shirt in weeks. But don’t drop your guard just yet.  Now that you’re working outside your controlled office environment you need to stay vigilant when it comes to protecting your business information.

The Government has clarified that most, but not all, businesses can start to open under Alert Level 3 from 11.59pm on Monday 27 April.

We have pulled together links to websites and information to make it easy for you to find what you’re looking for.

The Government has announced (April 15) a further set of tax proposals to help businesses manage the impacts of COVID-19.  In summary:

Keeping on top of your invoicing requires a proactive strategy. Sometimes it just takes a phone call. Here’s some other tips:

The Government is introducing urgent law changes to the Companies Act to give directors temporary relief from potential personal liability when the business faces significant liquidity problems.  The changes will not cover serious breaches of duty.

During the ongoing coronavirus crisis, many sectors are seeing income either disappear completely or drop to dangerous levels.

Inland Revenue has recognised the system of binding rulings doesn’t work for small businesses because it’s too expensive.

You might have been contacted by your bank to fill in a form enquiring about your CRS status. In simple terms, CRS stands for Common Reporting Standard.

If you pay your provisional tax one day late you come out of what is called the Safe Harbour scheme.

There have been several tax changes recently. Some of the important ones are listed here:

Many of us have been thrust into a remote working regime with little time to prepare. Here’s some options for working collaboratively yet remotely:

If you’ve received a wage subsidy, don’t treat it as being part of sales.

Having a plan to deal with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic is going to be critical to business survival.

If you have applied for or have received the COVID-19 Wage Subsidy, you must still undertake best endeavours to pay the employees named in your application, at least 80 percent of their usual wages.

The rapid escalation of New Zealand’s official response to COVID-19 is having impact on our business community - in some cases, it’s already significant. We believe that business owners and managers, ourselves included, will find dealing with the coming months challenging.  We want to assure you that we are here to support you.

The devil is in the detail and there are conditions around employees using mobile phones and how PAYE and FBT rules apply. Recently Inland Revenue provided an easy rule of thumb for employers to adopt.