The Government is extending the use of tax pooling so taxpayers can now use it to settle income tax debt from the 2022–23 and 2023–24 years. A formal trial is expected to run through to 30 September 2027. This is a helpful shift. Until now, tax pooling has mainly been for managing provisional tax. Extending it to past-year debt gives more flexibility. It involves buying back-dated IRD payments through a tax-pooling provider, often at a lower interest rate and without IRD penalties. For businesses that had a tight year or unexpected tax bill, this can take pressure off. A few things to be aware of: To be eligible you need to have returns filed and no overdue GST or PAYE. It doesn’t remove the underlying tax; it simply gives a more flexible and cheaper pathway to get it paid. The extension is a trial, not a permanent rule change. Overall, it’s a positive move that gives businesses another lever when cashflow is tight.

If you’ve paid a deposit and the supplier goes broke, you may be last in line to recover your money

Adult minimum wage rises to $23.95 an hour This is an increase of 45 cents per hour from the current hourly rate of $23.50. The training and starting-out minimum wages will also both increase to $19.16 per hour, remaining at 80% of the adult minimum wage. This is a rise from the current minimum rate of $18.80 per hour. An employee working 40 hours per week on the adult minimum wage will earn an extra $18 per week or $936 per annum (before tax) compared to the current minimum wage. Around 122,500 New Zealand workers currently earning below the new minimum wage rates should get an increase in their pay packets as a result of the change in the minimum wage. KiwiSaver contribution rate changes The default KiwiSaver employer and employee contribution rate will rise to 3.5% (from 3%). The new rate will affect all pay days from 1 April. So even if your pay period covers before and after 1 April, your whole contribution for that pay period will be deducted at the new rate. Temporary rate reduction If you are an employee, you can apply for a temporary rate reduction from 1 February 2026 if you want to carry on contributing at 3% from 1 April 2026. This could be because you can’t afford the rate increase or want to save in other ways. You can apply for a rate reduction for a 3 month (92 days) to 12 month period. You can do this as many times as you like. Your employer can choose to match your temporary rate reduction. Once you move from the temporary rate to a higher rate, IRD will notify your employer. Contributions for 16 and 17-year-olds Those aged 16 or 17 will qualify for employer KiwiSaver contributions from 1 April 2026, so long as they meet other eligibility requirements. If the employee contributes to KiwiSaver from their wages, the employer will need to start making contributions. Before 1 April 2026, employers only need to contribute for employees aged 18 to 65.

In November 2025 Xero launched a new feature called Auto-Reconciliation . It uses Xero’s internal AI engine to automatically match and reconcile new bank statement lines overnight rather than you doing it manually. It applies your existing bank rules, matches invoices and bills, and learn s from past reconciliations to predict future matches. Auto-Reconciliation is in open beta and available to selected organisations on Xero’s Growing plan and above. If your business has access to it, you will see it when you are in the Bank Accounts → Reconcile screen. Subscriber or advisor-level permissions are required to turn it on. If you don’t like it, you can turn it off again. If you already code your own Xero, your transactions are consistent and you already use bank rules effectively, this has good potential to reduce your admin workload. It may be less suitable at least initially for businesses with complex transactions, frequent adjustments or multi-currency dealings. What should you watch out for? Only new transactions are auto-reconciled; historical items still need manual handling. It does it based on confidence levels, so some transactions will still require review. If you are slow getting bills or invoices into the system, it won’t match them. Multi-currency transactions may need manual checks for exchange rate adjustments. You need to review the reconciliation screen and fix mistakes it makes. It learns from your corrections. Fixing is easy - It provides good information about what it’s done and why. Treat it like the apprentice. Before enabling, review your bank rules and consider whether automation could introduce errors. We would recommend monitoring it daily for the first little while, so you can capture and fix overnight mistakes early. It should improve as it goes along. A final reminder that if you don’t like it you can turn it off again, but if you don’t give it a go, you’ll never know.

What’s changing? From October 2025, IRD has been sending some businesses with substantial unpaid tax a formal notice that they will be credit reported. The business will have 30 days to take action, such as setting up an instalment arrangement, before any credit reporting occurs. Who’s affected? · Businesses with tax debt that has been unpaid for a year and is at least 30% of the company’s profit, or · Businesses that owe more than $150,000 Why does this matter? Credit reporting impacts a business’s credit rating and ability to access finance. IRD shares information with Centrix, the approved credit reporting agency. Options If you can’t immediately pay the debt, please contact us to help set up an instalment arrangement or look at other options like tax pooling. Or you can set up an instalment arrangement yourself on myIR to stay in IRD’s good books!

WorkSafe NZ has announced a ramp-up in workplace inspections, including recruiting more inspectors and increasing site visits across high-risk industries like agriculture, construction and manufacturing. These are compliance checks. Inspectors can arrive unannounced, ask to speak with workers, take photos, and issue formal notices if they find anything lacking. What sort of hazards they are looking at? Acute: vehicles and machinery, falls from height, falling objects, electrical and chemical hazards Chronic: exposure to dusts, fumes and exhaust Catastrophic: events that could cause multiple serious injuries or fatalities Some things that trigger inspections A recent ACC claim or notifiable incident A complaint from a worker, neighbour, or ex-employee A pattern of past non-compliance Sometimes, just being in a high-risk industry is enough and there also seems to be a focus on the farming sector What you can do Review your health and safety systems Make sure training records and hazard registers are up to date Check that your team knows what’s expected if an inspector arrives

When will YOU become a MILLIONAIRE? Head to the calculator in our new super-useful CLIENT TOOLS section on our website to work it out! Of course the team at Russell Turner is always happy to help answer any of your questions, but this fantastic one-stop shop provides free calculators, tools and links that might be just what you need. You'll find news sites, tax tools, stock exchanges, HR help, business planning and lots more. Crikey - you could even make it your home page! Check it out under CLIENT TOOLS on the top bar of our website.

Be on the lookout for scammers pretending to be from IRD. Study official-looking emails carefully - even if you hear from an organisation often. Scammers change their modus operandi often, but here are some current clues that show that an email from IRD is fake: It is not from an official IRD email address It does not include your name There are links in the email, but they don't go to IRD's website Remember that if something seems too good to be true, it probably is! Check out the latest IRD scams here: https://www.ird.govt.nz/managing-my-tax/scams/latest-scams

Inland Revenue have recently announced this year’s livestock Herd Scheme Values and we think this is a great opportunity to update you on the latest movements. Click here to open the four-page report which covers dairy and beef cattle, sheep, goats and deer.