Only 58 days to go!
Yep, only 58 days until it’s time to knock off for summer (we’re not ready to say the ‘C’ word just yet…). Yep, we are into the final quarter for the 2024 calendar year.
For a lot of businesses and households, the year to date has been a bit of a tough one. If so, how do you plan to finish strong? If 2024 hasn’t provided the level of revenue that you want (or need), what can you do over the next couple of months to turn this around?
If you need a big finish to the year but not sure how to go about it, get in contact.
Good news?
Spring has sprung and without wanting to use superlatives, many commentators have been talking about ‘green shoots’ both in the economy and in the housing market.
Dairy farmers have had some good news with what looks like an increasing payout and a bigger than expected dividend, leading to many rural centres breathing a sigh of relief. Likewise, interest rates have dropped and if the SWAP rates are anything to go by, there is room for them to come down further. Good news for borrowers.
But the other side of the coin, there continue to be job losses, and numerous sectors are still in a funk. As we’ve highlighted previously, NZ’s productivity remains poor and even in a time of ‘constrained’ demand, we are still running a current account deficit (meaning that as a country, we are spending more than we are earning). A bunch of economic commentators say there is a long way before our economy is on an even keel.
Which is it then? Our view is: it’s kind of like the weather, you really can’t do all that much about it, and at best, the forecast is ‘mixed’ so no point getting too excited. And if we are unhappy with the state of the economy, we can complain all we want, but it won’t change anything. A far more sensible course of action is to make plans for the conditions in front of us. If you’re feeling a bit lost or unsure what the right course of action is, grab a pen and paper, sit down and make a plan. And if you’re not sure how to start, get in touch.
Processing times
We’ve written previously about the ‘change of tact’ that IRD have taken, and that they are now aggressively pursuing outstanding unpaid tax. We have also mentioned their increased ‘compliance’ focus – meaning they are conducting many more reviews and investigations.
This activity was always going to kick off at some point, but one of the consequences of ‘reallocating resources’ within IRD is that other tasks are now taking longer. Processing times and correspondence times had been reducing but these have now gone up. Most notably if you make a claim for donations made, the processing time for this is now 12 weeks – that’s three months!
For our tax clients, this can mean that it will take us a little longer to get issues resolved or tax returns assessed. But rest assured, we will be chasing them on your behalf.