McLEAN AND CO.

Accounting                    Taxation                      Business Advice and Development Assistance                              P.O. Box 10 , Clive        133 Main Rd, Clive          Tel. (06) 8700952         Fax. (06) 8700955 

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

 
 
EMAIL NEWSLETTER  MAY 2005
 

Welcome again to the McLean and Co. Newsletter in which we discuss current taxation and business matters. We trust you find it informative.  Any feedback would be welcomed.

McLean and Co. is a home based chartered accountancy practice based in Clive, Hawkes Bay.    Readers are invited to peruse the practice website www.mcleanandco.co.nzwhich lists services provided, gives contact details and indicates how to become a client, contains an extensive base of articles on business and taxation matters,  and has links to other websites that may assist your business.    Being a small firm itself,   McLean and Co. strives to provide a personal and professional service largely to a self employed person and small business client base.  Enquiries are welcomed.

 

NEW CLIENTS

We are happy to accept new clients.  Please contact ourselves at the contact points highlighted above if we can assist you in your accounting and taxation requirements. Our website lists information required for this in the following link:

www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Documentationrequired.htm

 

INDEX

  1. Relevant Business and Taxation Articles.

  2. Do you need to file an IR3 Return for 2005?

  3. Family Assistance Increases

  4. The 7 Keys to Business Success

  5. 7 Steps to Financial Failure

 

RELEVANT BUSINESS AND TAXATION ARTICLES

The McLean and Co. website contains an extensive number of articles prepared by McLean and Co. relating to taxation and business matters.    Here are a selection that will be of interest:

ACC CoverPlus Extra vs CoverPlus       www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Page161.htm

ACC CoverPlus Extra                              www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Page160.htm

Beating a Housing Bubble                        www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Page153.htm

Ten Step Strategic Plan                             www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Page131.htm

Obligations of a Landlord                          www.mcleanandco.co.nz/Page156.htm

 

DO YOU NEED TO FILE AN IR3 RETURN FOR 2005?

Did you receive income with no tax deducted - from business, partnership, an employer, interest, rent, royalties, estates and trusts, or anywhere else?

Did you earn withholding payments - usually from contract work?

Did you receive income from an estate or trust?

Did you receive shares from your employer either free or below market value?

Were you assessed for provisional tax in the 2004 income year?

Did you receive any income from overseas?     Answer "No" if your only overseas income was:

social security pension subject to the special banking option for the full year
interest and dividends under NZ$200 with tax deducted.

Do you have a loss to carry forward from the previous year (from business, rental, etc)?

Did you change your balance date part way through the year?   Generally this will apply only to someone who's in business or who's just stopped running a business.

If you answered "Yes" to any of the above , you will need to file an IR 3 tax return.

 

FAMILY ASSISTANCE INCREASES

Family Assistance is made up of four types of payments – Family Support, Child Tax Credit, Family Tax Credit and Parental Tax Credit. You may qualify for one or more, depending on your personal situation.

From 1 April 2005 the maximum rate of Family Support will increase by $25 a week for your first child, and $15 a week for each other child.

Some families receiving a benefit will have part of their payments transferred to their Family Support. This will affect their benefit, but they will be better off overall with the increases to Family Support.

From 1 April 2006:

The new In-Work Payment will replace the Child Tax Credit for eligible working parents. The In-Work Payment will pay up to $60 per week per family, with an extra $15 per child for the fourth and subsequent children.
The Family Tax Credit will increase.
Income limits for Family Assistance will increase. This will mean families can earn more before their Family Support, In-Work Payment, or Parental Tax Credit starts to reduce.

From 1 April 2007, the rate of Family Support will increase again by $10 per week per child.

If you are already receiving Family Assistance you don't need to do anything to get the increase. Your payments will be adjusted automatically.

If you are not currently receiving Family Assistance, and think you might be eligible from 1 April 2005, you can apply by calling Inland Revenue on 0800 227 773.

 

How much can you earn and receive Family Assistance?

The table below shows the income limit for each type of payment. The amounts are based on all children being under 13 years. If you have children older than 13 years you can earn more and still receive a payment.

Number of
children
Annual Income (before tax)
Family Support Child Tax Credit Parental Tax Credit
1 $35,686 $38,286 $63,951
2 $43,833 $49,033 $74,698
3 $51,979 $59,779 $85,445
4 $60,126 $70,526 $96,191
5 $68,273 $81,273 $106,938
6 $76,419 $92,019 $117,685

Family Tax Credit is for families who earn up to $18,368 (before tax) a year.

See your Family Assistance income gains at a glance

See how much you might get by using the Inland Revenue calculator

More information about Family Assistance is available from the Inland Revenue website

 

THE 7 KEYS TO BUSINESS SUCCESS

The following  7 keys can improve your business results and help you achieve success with much less stress.

1. Take Charge

The first key is to realise that success will not just happen, it is up to you to make it happen. Successful people claim to be in control. They refuse to be victims. They accept responsibility for the results their business achieves and take the blame themselves if things go wrong. When we are in control we can choose what to do. We can't always control the situation but there are two things we can control our attitude and our skills. We can get stronger, we can get smarter, we can get better at all the skills we need to run our business. We can take charge of ourselves and our business and change the results we are achieving.

2. Know Where You Are Going

Without having specific goals, business owners often find working in the business becomes an endless drudgery. If being in business is not exciting, enjoyable and rewarding, then why be in it? It is exciting and rewarding for the few who are really successful. The difference is that they have a clear idea of where they are going and each day they can see their business making progress towards their clearly defined goals.

If our goals are not clearly defined it is easy to become like the mouse on the treadmill. We can expend a lot of effort going nowhere. All we can do is react to the pressures the business creates. The second key is to decide where you are going. When you know where you want your business to go, you can determine what needs to be done to get there. Doing these things creates excitement and enjoyment. Instead of struggling on with meager rewards, we can make progress towards success in a steadily growing and entirely planned way.

3. Spread The Word

You will never succeed by keeping your business a secret. You need to spread the word to let people know about your unique products or services. With many small businesses, there is a tendency to be reactive. If sales slow down, you decide to advertise to address the situation. When work picks up, advertising is stopped. The result of this approach is haphazard advertising which produces haphazard results. Rather than haphazard advertising, a planned advertising and promotion strategy can be applied to address specific goals.

Instead of one broad objective of getting more sales , strategies can be developed in three areas. Firstly strategies should be developed to actively encourage word of mouth and a system for generating referred leads. Secondly, planned advertising approaches are needed to generate a steady flow of new enquiries. Thirdly, strategies can be developed to increase the value and frequency of purchases from existing customers. Marketing must not be left to chance. The third key is to spread the word, by developing planned, consistent and effective advertising and promotional systems and strategies.

4. Do What You Do So Well They ll Come Back And Bring Their Friends

The difference between the truly successful business and the average business is that successful business leaders live, breathe and preach quality, where the average business leader only pays lip service to it. There are many companies that have built their reputation on the quality of the service they provide as much as the product they sell. Even if we haven t been, I'm sure we all know the reputation Disneyland has for the quality of the experience of a visit there. The title of this key is a quote (paraphrased) from Walt Disney. This man lived and breathed this attitude and accepted nothing less from his employees. The outworking is that standards and procedures are established so that employees know what is expected of them in every situation, particularly in an interaction with a customer. Delighted customers come back with their friends.

5. Train Your People To Do It Better Than You

When we start a business based on our own unique skills, we have a difficult choice when we get too busy to cope with all the work our expertise has created. We need to spread the load by employing others to do some of the work. This is the critical point in the business development. If the business owner gets this right, the future of the business is assured, but if it goes wrong, the business is doomed.

Many business owners wish they could clone themselves. They are unable to find anyone who can work as well as they do. Usually there has been some resistance to this move, but eventually the need becomes obvious. Business growth is always stifled by the owner hanging on to the work they enjoy. Having made the choice to grow, the key to unlocking this potential is to train the new people to be better than yourself.

6. Keep The Score

The greatest danger in a growing business is for the owner to lose control. This fear causes many to choose to stay small because they do not want the worries of growing too big.

WHAT YOU MEASURE YOU CAN IMPROVE!

A business performance needs to be managed and controlled. So many business owners worry about getting the work done, but they don t measure results, they don t keep score. Keeping the score indicates how well the business is going towards achieving its goals. If performance is behind expectations, steps can be taken to improve. If the score was not kept, no one would ever know that performance was substandard, and the goals would quite likely never be reached.

7. Celebrate Your Victories

Regeneration of our physical and emotional resources comes when we celebrate victories. One of the problems we have in small business is that we think we are too busy to take time off to celebrate. Even if we just get away from the business and relax, we come back rejuvenated and are usually able to tackle our work with a renewed vigour. Imagine how inefficient it becomes, using a battery powered machine, if we keep on working harder and harder to get the work done and never stop to recharge the batteries. If we don't stop at times to recharge our batteries we keep working hard but become totally ineffective.

When we plan our future and set goals it is easy to determine when to celebrate. Without goals to achieve, we can keep on working until it becomes a drudgery. Celebrations put excitement into what we do.

Conclusion

Implementing the 7 keys to unlock the profit potential in your business could be what you need to end the frustration you feel from trying to build your business but seeming to take one step forward and two steps back. These are the keys to freedom from the daily grind of business pressure, the keys to gaining the rewards you deserve from the efforts you put in. It is up to you to take hold of the keys and unlock the hidden profit and excitement that is the potential your business holds.

 

 

7 STEPS TO FINANCIAL FAILURE


Want to face endless financial difficulties during your lifetime? There are a few simple things you can do. For all of you who are sick of hearing all the talk about ways to improve your financial position, you are not alone, judging by the popularity of our 7 easy steps to financial failure.

1. Pay no attention whatsoever to where your money goes
Keeping a budget, tracking spending and knowing how much is in your bank account could all potentially make you realise that you are frittering away your hard earned money on unnecessary expenses. This might lead you to feel that you need to cut down on these areas, so try to avoid any knowledge of your financial affairs.

2. Use credit cards for anything and everything
Of course, you want to be sure that you never pay the card off in full, and of course rather than shop around for a card that suits your spending, make sure that you choose one with high interest and fees and no rewards. This way you can be sure to pay interest close to 20% on everything that you buy, while getting nothing in return.

3. Don’t save anything
If you can possibly spend everything you earn, then do. The last thing you want is to have money lying around tempting you to invest it – that would only achieve financial security.

4. Invest in last year’s winner
If, despite all your efforts above, you do wind up with leftover money (we can hardly call it savings if it is purely by accident that you have it at all) then try to invest in whatever performed best last year. Since financial and investment markets move in cycles, the odds are against you doing well with this strategy.

5. Ignore asset allocation
Pay no attention whatsoever to asset allocation principles, or the level of risk you can tolerate. Five years to retirement? High volatility is the name of the game if you want to lose the lot. If you are still young, go ultra-conservative to make sure your investments don’t keep up with inflation and lose spending power over time. Ideally, keep it all in a bank account that pays 0% interest.

6. Put all your eggs in one basket
Diversification would only reduce the risk of you making a poor decision on one investment, or increase the chance you’ll pick something of high quality.

7. Never seek professional advice
A professional should make sure you avoid steps 1-6, and they’ll probably find other ways for you to save more, invest wisely and be financially secure both now and in the future. They may even have access to independent research like FundSource, so they’ll have recommendations on funds to invest in that expert analysts have confidence in, and are good investments for the future.

Of course, if the idea of sleepless nights, paying endless amounts of interest, and living out your retirement solely on superannuation doesn’t appeal, then maybe financial failure is not for you – in which case you would want to ensure that you avoid the suggestions in steps 1-7 above.

The information provided in this email newsletter is for informational purposes only.   McLean and Co. accept 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 McLean and Co. 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.    

 

If we can assist further, please email McLean and Co as follows:

 CONTACT McLEAN AND CO. BY EMAIL BY CLICKING ON THIS LINK

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