There is a dramatic divide between the tax policies of the left bloc and the centre-right bloc for the coming election. National, ACT, and New Zealand First are arguing that New Zealanders are being overtaxed, whereas Labour, the Green Party, and the Te Pati Maori Party are all arguing that more tax revenue is required. The following is a summary of the published tax policies for the main parties in the New Zealand Election 2023.

Today, we had the first notable tax policy announcement in the lead-up to the 14 October General Election. Although today’s announcement did not appear planned. Prime Minister Chris Hipkins was seemingly backed into a corner after poor polling and ruled out any capital gains taxes or wealth taxes under his leadership, repeating the same step taken by the former Labour leader and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

BNZ is revamping its Xero bank feeds to simplify the setup process and enhance access to transaction data. Consequently, if you’re a BNZ customer, you’ll need to re-establish your BNZ bank feeds with Xero anytime between now and 14 August 2023 to ensure uninterrupted service.

Emma Pilcher from our Blenheim office and Casey Gousmett from WK Strawbridge recently attended the annual Primary Sector Conference held in Christchurch. The Primary Sector Conference 2023 was designed for rural accounting practitioners working with primary sector businesses.

Budget 2023 has been dubbed the “No Frills Budget” by the Government. The opposition are already dubbing it the “Blow-out Budget”. Given that inflation is at levels unseen in New Zealand for a generation, the messaging around the 2023 Budget has been that it would be a “no frills” budget. In other words, the Government did not want this budget to be seen as the “lolly-scramble” that is typical for an election-year budget.

As a business leader or entrepreneur, finding the right strategic facilitation partner can be crucial to the success of your business. That’s why WK Advisors and Accountants launched its Strategic Advisory programmes designed for accountability and action, which is led by highly experienced and accredited facilitators.

People generally are not overly enthusiastic about filing and paying taxes. However, businesses seem to reserve a special disdain for fringe benefit tax or FBT. FBT is seen as overly complex and difficult to comply with compared to other taxes.

Mark and Jane Schwass are award-winning beef and lamb farmers based in Culverden, North Canterbury. Mark and Jane have been clients of WK for many years, they purchased the 956-hectare property at Kaiora Downs in the Hurunui foothills in 2000. Over the years, the farm has grown; with the purchase of part of the farm next door, they now run an 1,350 hectare farming operation with a primary focus on sheep and beef cattle breeding and dairy grazing for other farmers in the district.

The Hickman Family from Taimate – Farmers, Grape Growers & Conservationists. We posted about the Hickman’s Native Tree planting project last year. As a follow-up, WK was invited to participate again this year. So, on a chilly but fine Tuesday in June, a small crew found themselves back at Lake Elterwater along with a group of about 30 other volunteers.

Yesterday was Budget Day and, as expected, the Government offered up some shiny trinkets in the form of large increases to health spending and a modest package to address the cost of living squeeze. However, make no mistakes, yesterday’s budget was not the budget New Zealand needed. A big increase in spending in a highly inflationary environment is a head-scratching move. This Government refuses to acknowledge its part in inflation and instead continues to entirely blame inflation on issues and events abroad.

This blog in our Mindshop Business Leader Insights series aims to help you identify areas of growth when it comes to leadership capability. As expected, every leader is at a different stage of their business journey, each with unique strengths and diverse goals for 2022 and beyond. For many business leaders, structured learning or upskilling has taken a backseat over the past few years as they instead focus on staying afloat in a rapidly changing business world.

Mindshop’s Business Leader Insights Report for 2022 has given us a lot of food for thought when it comes to moving forward in a changing business landscape. As we continue our series of blogs to help you understand Mindshop’s findings and action their business reset tips, we move into strategies for recharting success.