Blog

IRD says ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’

Inland Revenue was taking a much more relaxed approach to outstanding tax debt during 2020 and 2021 – but now it’s ready to crack down. Since the start of July, it has stepped up its efforts to pursue outstanding amounts from local businesses.

Thankfully this does not affect most of our clients for we recommend the use of PAYE intermediaries so that PAYE is paid at the same time as the wages are deducted

However, If, for any reason, you think you might be short on paying your taxes,  please get in touch with us immediately to discuss all your options..

Other areas of focus for the Inland Revenue

Over the past year, Inland Revenue has also been taking a tough approach to some other specific types of tax concerns:

• high earners who think they might be able to avoid paying the new 39% top tax rate using companies and trusts
• Businesses who should be paying fringe benefit taxes but are avoiding it
• Scheduler income earners who are overstating their expenses or underreporting their income
• GST on land purchases by developers
• phoenix companies that are shut down and restarted to avoid tax debts

If you owe tax, don’t bury your head in the sand

We work hard to make sure our clients understand their tax obligations, but if you do have any questions, please let us know. The people at Inland Revenue can be very understanding and helpful, but they don’t have the opportunity to help if you simply bury your head in the sand and hope the problem will go away.

Don’t let your tax debt get out of hand – we’re here to support you and work on your behalf with Inland Revenue to help your tax get paid and your businesses succeed.

Meeting your goals during a global slowdown

Optimism among business owners was high coming into 2022. But a number of factors are now making things a lot more challenging:

• Global events are pushing up energy prices to astronomical levels.
• Ongoing supply-chain issues are making it difficult to source raw materials.
• A scarcity of labour resources are causing extra expenses for both staffing and difficulty in hiring.

Faced with these hurdles, you might feel that your goals are no longer attainable. But is this true? Growth is likely to be a challenge, but not impossible.

5 steps for meeting your goals during a slowdown

Moving forward during a period of economic recession is certainly more of a challenge. But what’s needed is an updated plan with awareness of the major external threats.

Here are five steps to set you on the right path:

1. Revisit your goals and see how realistic they are – look at the numbers and make a call on whether they still make sense in the current business market. If necessary, update your goals and make them challenging. But, importantly, make any goals attainable during a time when cash and resources are in short supply.
2. Get the best possible understanding of your financial position – take a deep-dive into your finances and see how you’re tracking against your budgets and targets. How is your cashflow looking? If additional funding is needed, where could it come from? There is still a small cashflow loan, that the government has offered, available until the end of December. Talk to us about whether your business can apply for this.
3. Decide if you have the right team for the job – Who you have on board is the most important determinant of the successful growth of your business.   You have to grow the skills of your team if you have any in order to grow your business.  How do you do this?   Feel free to have conversations about this area with us.   We do run workshops on culture, values, and organisational reviews that may help you.   Think about whether you have the team you need, or if there’s a pressing need to hire new people. And consider if automation could fill some of the resourcing gaps.
4. Assess the current situation in your sector – You can’t change the big external threats in your industry. But you can do your homework and find out what the immediate threats will be. Are there supply chain issues? Are prices going sky high? Get up to speed and look for ways to minimise the impact. Sometimes this sort of work is hard to do on your own, we are happy to help you with SWOT analysis this is part of our business plan service
5. Finally – Update your plan – once you’ve looked over your numbers, goals and strategy, you’re likely to need an updated business plan. Factor in the threats, set meaningful goals, but give your company a target that’s realistic during a global slowdown. Successful small steps towards a goal are better than one giant leap; a leap where you may land flat on your face. Many of our clients are able to receive government funding for 50% of the cost of a business plan – if you are interested please reach out.

Talk to us about your goal-setting for this year and beyond

The sooner you start revisiting your goals and business plan, the better prepared your business and team will be for the recession. Come and talk to us about your financial position, your core strategy and your concerns about the next six to twelve months.

We’ll help you set practical, attainable goals that will push your business forward.

Plan for the upcoming GST deadline in October

Don’t be caught out by by not having this payment date highlighted on your calendar. Friday the 28th of October is the date for GST returns to be filed and GST amounts paid for 6 monthly and 2 monthly returns.