Spring is here!

by Shawn O’Grady
2 Minute(s) to read

Spring is here!

There is no better time to clear out old clutter. So while you are having a quick clean up around the house why not look at that musty box in the shed full of old records. The general rule is 7 years for all records, electronic or paper from bank statements to receipts.

There are two main exceptions to this 1) Trust financials (these need to be kept longer depending on what it is). 2) property purchase details, these normally need to be kept for as long as you own the property. You may also want to hold onto wage records for anyone still in your employment. Now is also a good time to look at how your business is performing.

 

Contractors 

Be aware if you are a GST registered contractor and get withholding tax deducted from your payments. You need to account for the GST on the withholding tax portion of your income. It’s concerning the number of  contractors that we find that don’t account for the GST on the withholding tax portion. It’s so easy to just pick up the net amount from your bank statement when doing your GST.  Be aware that IR certainly looks at this area  when they do an audit.

 

(AML/CFT) Act

Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism is new on the scene and for those of you that listen Mike Hosking at 6am week mornings you would have heard a bit about it, especially as far as the legal profession is concerned. From 1 October 2018 it's the Accountants turn. What will it mean to you the client? We will have to request a whole lot more personal information from you to comply with the new act. 

 

New motor vehicle mileage rates

The new motor vehicle mileage rates are:

.76 cents per km for business travel for the first 14,000 kms and then it drops down to .26 cents per km for petrol and diesel vehicles,

.18 cents for petrol hybrid,

.09 cents for electric.

It does comes with some fish hooks which you need to be aware of, find the details on https://www.ird.govt.nz/business-income-tax/expenses/mileage-rates/emp-deductions-allowances-mileage.html

 

HAVE WE GOT YOU THINKING?

 

Give us a call on (04) 563 6965 or email: dennis@taxman.co.nz or shawn@taxman.co.nz

Keep an eye out for October’s article

 

TAX DATES TO REMEMBER

  • 20th September. 2018 - monthly employers PAYE payment…
  • 28th September. 2018 - Bi monthly GST Return for July/August 2018…