Welcome to McLean and Co., Chartered Accountants

TOTALACCOUNTING Chartered Accountants

Accounting Taxation Business Advice and Development Assistance

P.O. Box 10 , Clive 133 Main Rd, Clive Tel. (06) 8700952 Fax. (06) 8700955

Email murray@totalaccounting.co.nz Website www.totalaccounting.co.nz

EMAIL NEWSLETTER MARCH 2015

Welcome again to the TotalAccounting Newsletter in which we discuss current taxation and business matters. We trust you find it informative.

NEW CLIENTS

We are happy to accept new clients. We would be happy to assist colleagues and acquaintances as new clients.

INDEX

Office Closures
Income Tax to Pay
Instalment Arrangements if you cant pay Income Tax
Cheque Option removed for Refunds
Parental Leave and Parental Tax Credits increased from 1/4/2015
More Details required for Company Annual Returns

OFFICE CLOSURES

The office will be closed over the following periods in the near future:

Saturday 21/3/2015- reopen Thursday 26/3/2015
Thursday 2/4/2015- reopen Thursday 16/4/2015
Likely to be later in April 2015 but currently not finalised

INCOME TAX TO PAY

Many clients have Income Tax to pay in the near future. You would have been advised by correspondence to yourselves indicating your tax liabilities if applicable to yourselves and been provided with Tax Assessments and Payment Slips. If applicable , you will have tax liabilities as follows:

in relation to Terminal Income Tax for the year ending 31/3/2014- DUE 7/4/2015
in relation to the final instalment for Provisional Income Tax for the year ending 31/3/2015- DUE 7/5/2015

To avoid penalties being added to your Income Tax amount due, it is important that you pay on or prior to these due dates.

It is also important that you be precise in your indicated detail to IRD when you pay your Tax due. For example, there have historically been issues with clients indicating that just because they are paying their Income Terminal Tax in this calendar year (2015) they indicate their year ending 31/3/2014 payment as relating to 31/3/2015. To do so means that IRD will send a Statement saying the 31/3/2014 Account is unpaid, IRD will add penalties due to this, and much extra work is required in sorting out the inaccuracy. Similarly clients indicating wrong years in Provisional Income Tax payments.

So if the payment relates to year ending 31/3/2014 Terminal Income Tax advise IRD this not otherwise, if the payment relates to year ending 31/3/2015 Provisional Income Tax advise IRD this not otherwise.

INSTALMENT ARRANGEMENTS IF YOU CANT PAY INCOME TAX

If you are unable to pay your Income Tax due in full on or before the due date and you have exhausted other options to find the money, paying by instalment might be the best solution.

Contact IRD if this is your situation before due dates. You may be able to arrange:

a lump sum at a later date
recurring payments until the debt is cleared
a combination of lump sum and recurring payments

The repayment arrangement needs to be reasonable or IRD won't accept it. Obviously also it needs to be affordable for you the taxpayer.

Setting up an instalment arrangement before a tax debt due date may save some penalties being added, but IRD will charge interest for payment after the original due date.

CHEQUE OPTION REMOVED FOR REFUNDS

IRD have from 1/4/2015 Income Tax Returns removed the tick box to request a refund by cheque.

That is, taxpayers will get their refunds to Bank Accounts as standard. Only where taxpayers have no valid Bank Accounts will IRD continue to send cheques to taxpayers.

PARENTAL LEAVE AND PARENTAL TAX CREDITS INCREASED FROM 1/4/2015

Increases to paid parental leave and parental tax credits will soon come into play. Paid parental leave will increase from 14 to 16 weeks and parental tax credits will go from $150 for 8 weeks to $220 for 10 weeks.

If you're an employee or are self employed, the changes apply if:

your child's due date is on or after 1 April 2015, but the child is born before then, or

your child is born on or after 1 April 2015, or

in the case of adoption, if the date on which you start caring for your child is on or after 1 April 2015

MORE DETAILS REQUIRED FOR COMPANY ANNUAL RETURNS

New Zealand Companies will need to provide additional information to the Companies Office as a result of changes introduced by the Companies Amendment Act 2014.

The changes have been brought in to prevent the misuse of the Companies Register, and to give the Registrar of Companies extra powers. They are designed to improve the quality and integrity of the information held by the Registrar about New Zealand companies, and to assist the Registrar in holding those who misuse the Register to account.

The main changes are:

New Zealand incorporated companies need to have a director who either lives in New Zealand , and if they live in Australia, that individual must be a director of a company incorporated in Australia

Directors must provide their date and place of birth to the Registrar- date of birth information won't be publically viewable.

Companies must publically disclose their ultimate holding company, if they have one

The Registrar will have the power to require companies to confirm that information provided to the Registrar is correct.

The Registrar will have increased inforcement powers that include the ability to issue notes of inactivity or warning against companies on the Register, to identify controllers of companies, and to de-register companies and prohibit persons from managing companies in certain additional circumstances

From 1 May 2015 all applications to incorporate a New Zealand company will have to:

provide all directors date and place of birth

have at least one director that either lives in New Zealand, or lives in Australia and is a director of an Australian incorporated company

provide details of their ultimate holding company, if applicable

From 1 July 2015 New Zealand companies incorporated prior to 1 May 2015 will now need to provide the following information when they file Company Annual Returns:

the date and place of birth of every director- this information won't be publically viewable

details of their ultimate holding company, if applicable

TotalAccounting file the Annual Returns for most of our company taxpayer clients. The above regulations mean that we will be seeking the information of the date and place of birth of every director of your companies when the Annual Returns are due to be filed. A Company Annual Return will not able to be filed if this information is not provided.

*TOTALACCOUNTING KNOWLEDGE CENTRE AND ARTICLES ABOUT TAXATION AND BUSINESS IN GENERAL PRESS HERE*	FOR BUSINESS STARTUP KNOWLEDGE CENTRE PRESS HERE
FOR INFORMATION ABOUT COMPANY INCORPORATION PRESS HERE	FOR PREVIOUS MONTH EMAIL NEWSLETTERS PRESS HERE
FOR PROPERTY INVESTMENT AND TAX INFORMATION PRESS HERE	FOR FRANCHISE INVESTMENT AND TAX INFORMATION PRESS HERE

The information provided in this email newsletter is for informational purposes only. TotalAccounting accepts no responsibility for the opinions and information expressed in the information provided and it is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. The user assumes the entire risk as to the accuracy and use of this document. Readers are asked to seek professional advice pertaining to their own circumstances. The TotalAccounting email newsletter may be copied and distributed subject to the following conditions:

All text must be copied without modification and all pages must be included.
This document must not be distributed for profit.

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