Saturday April 13 Let’s Talk … Navigating Automation for Financial Success In today’s fast-paced business landscape, efficiency is paramount. Small business owners, farmers, and accountants alike, seek streamlined solutions to manage financial data effectively. Say ‘Goodbye’ to the days of manually entering data into a spreadsheet, and instead say, ‘Hello’ to cloud accounting software — a game-changer that combines the power of… Wednesday March 13 Let’s Talk … New Legislation Updates for Incorporated Societies Are you an Incorporated Society or thinking about becoming an Incorporated Society? As of 5 October 2023, new legislation under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 came into force. Existing Incorporated Societies (those already incorporated under the 1908 Act) will need to re-register under the 2022 Act if they want to… Wednesday March 13 UK Tax Authority Hitting Regular Workers With Big Bills The UK’s tax collection department (HMRC) has been sending letters to tens of thousands of taxpayers, demanding they pay large outstanding tax obligations. The letters have come as a surprise to many and have allegedly been linked to 10 suicides. The issue has arisen out of the use of… Wednesday March 13 End of Year Write-Offs As increasing interest rates have bitten and with industry sectors such as retail and construction not performing as strongly, some businesses are struggling. As the end of the financial year approaches, now is a good time to assess whether any of your accounts receivable need to be written off as ‘bad’. This is because, in… Wednesday March 13 Trust Disclosure Regime - Insights From The First Year After the introduction of the Trust Disclosure rules in March 2022, in November 2023 Inland Revenue released a high-level summary (in the form of a 40-page report) of insights from the first year of reporting. While tax advisors and clients alike may have begrudgingly completed the disclosures initially, the statistics… Wednesday March 13 De Facto Relationship Or Not? The Working for Families Tax Credit (WFFTC) is a notoriously complex scheme when it comes to determining eligibility and quantifying entitlement. This leads you to wonder how well the scheme is policed by Inland Revenue, and whether fraud is able to ‘fly under the radar’. Accordingly, it was heartening to see a case brought… Wednesday March 13 Assessing Your Business's Viability Sitting back at your desk after a month of busy family time or relaxing beach days, business owners should start to think about not only the year ahead, but the long-term viability of their businesses. With rapid changes and multiple existential threats impacting different businesses in different ways, it might be an opportunistic time to… Thursday February 08 Let’s Talk … End of Tax Year Planning With the financial year end approaching for many business people, now is a great time to utilise some relatively simple tax planning tools to minimise your end costs. Prepaying Expenses If you prepay certain expenses before balance date, a tax deduction is available in that tax year. These expenses include… Monday December 11 Let’s Talk … Contract Milking If you’re a dairy farm worker aspiring to take the next step to becoming self-employed, you may be considering contract milking. Completing due diligence on potential jobs and being aware of the compliance requirements of becoming self-employed, are important points to first consider. Due Diligence Before accepting a contract, calculate what your… Tuesday December 05 Australia's Tax System Compared With the recent inflation driven surge in the cost of living, apparent increase in crime and seemingly constant complaints about the education and health systems, some New Zealanders are considering packing up shop and moving across the ditch to Australia. But is the grass really greener – at least from a tax perspective? … Tuesday December 05 Covid Fraud Given the necessity of providing fast relief, the wage subsidy scheme provided during COVID in NZ was largely based on trust. Today, MSD operates a Wage Subsidy Integrity and Fraud Programme aimed at ensuring the integrity of the payments and who received them. So far, 38 people have been brought before the courts in relation to… Tuesday December 05 National's Tax Policies - Property Given the outcome of the general election, we expect to see legislation that will make the following tax changes. The ability to claim interest deductions on debt relating to some residential rental properties acquired before 27 March 2021 will be progressively phased out. The coalition government has agreed on a 60% allowable deduction… Tuesday December 05 Tax Pooling & Provisional Tax For a standard 12-month year, provisional tax is due in three instalments. The instalments generally fall on the 28th day of the fifth, ninth and thirteenth months. However, this is varied in certain situations, including the Summer and Easter holidays, respectively. Most taxpayers use the ‘standard uplift’ method where instalments are calculated based… Sunday November 12 Let’s Talk … The Five C’s of Credit If you’re considering applying for finance (for a house, farm, business or major asset) the lender will take into account the five c’s before they decide whether or not to lend to you. Each lender will place different emphasis on each of the five c’s when assessing your application. However, most… Wednesday October 18 Let’s Talk … Xerocon 2023 Developed from Wellington in 2006, accounting software, Xero, has grown considerably in users, features and app partners. As proud representatives of MCI & Associates, we gained valuable insight into the benefits of Xero at this year’s Xerocon event held in Sydney. Xerocon is one of the world’s most innovative conferences for cloud accounting… Thursday September 28 MCI & Associates – Team Talk When it comes to our clients and our staff, they are much more than ‘just a number’. At MCI & Associates, we genuinely value our clients and believe our staff to be our greatest asset, and key to our success. MCI & Associates are proud to be locally owned and operate from… Thursday September 28 Supporting Locals and the Accounting Industry Currently we’re seeing high demand for accountants in New Zealand. According to New Zealand’s largest job search engine, accountants are one of the top 10 most in-demand roles in the country for 2023. MCI & Associates, with offices in both Dannevirke and Pahiatua, are aware of the need for more accountants in… Sunday September 03 Super Profits Last year, the Green Party hit the headlines for suggesting banks, fuel companies, supermarkets, building products suppliers and energy generators/retailers should pay tax on super profits. So, as we go into the election, we should give some thought as to whether some new innovative taxes are warranted. For example, in Canada, kids cereal manufacturers have… Sunday September 03 GST Registration Checks A standard data policing check completed by Inland Revenue is to review taxpayer GST filing patterns to identify taxpayers that are GST registered, but perhaps shouldn’t be. In order to qualify for GST registration, a taxpayer needs to be conducting a “taxable activity”. This comprises a continuous or regular activity that involves making a…
Let’s Talk … Navigating Automation for Financial Success
Let’s Talk … New Legislation Updates for Incorporated Societies
UK Tax Authority Hitting Regular Workers With Big Bills
End of Year Write-Offs
Trust Disclosure Regime - Insights From The First Year
De Facto Relationship Or Not?
Assessing Your Business's Viability
Let’s Talk … End of Tax Year Planning
Let’s Talk … Contract Milking
Australia's Tax System Compared
Covid Fraud
National's Tax Policies - Property
Tax Pooling & Provisional Tax
Let’s Talk … The Five C’s of Credit
Let’s Talk … Xerocon 2023
MCI & Associates – Team Talk
Supporting Locals and the Accounting Industry
Super Profits
GST Registration Checks