Robertson Lambasts National’s Proposed Tax Cuts
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
Despite a recent Treasury report confirming the country had recorded a smaller-than-expected budget deficit of $9.7 billion thanks to boosted tax revenue collection and slower growth in spending, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said that there are no plans by the government to cut the tax rate for top earners. This deficit result is about half of what was forecasted in the 2022 Budget. Robertson’s comments are contrary to a proposed plan by the National Party led by Christopher Luxon, which has said they will seek to cut the tax rate for top earners if elected into power during next year ..read more
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New Payment Regime to Benefit Small Businesses in New Zealand
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
Minister for Small Business, Stuart Nash, recently confirmed that the Business Payment Practices disclosure scheme will help bring transparency to business-to-business payment practices. Under this scheme, firms with revenues exceeding $33 million a year would be required to report on their payment practices every six months. This threshold for what identifies a large business was set based on criteria from the Financial Report Act 2013. The reports would need to also include late payments and the length of time taken between receiving invoices and making full payments. The scheme is similar t ..read more
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NZ Dodges Recession with Strong Economic Growth
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
The New Zealand economy grew by 1.7% during the June quarter, confirming that the country has managed to defy the odds and not go into a recession. This has been a positive result following a poor showing in the March quarter that saw the economy decline by 0.2%. Financial experts had predicted that the new gross domestic product (GDP) figures would point to the country having avoided a recession. There was however still some concern as to what this would mean for the economy. While positive economic growth indicates improvement, it may not be good news for borrowers. With this outcome being p ..read more
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Cyber Scams Becoming Increasingly Sophisticated
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
The NZ Superannuation Fund has reported incidents of scammers impersonating the fund online in a bid to defraud people of their money. The cons involve offering savers access to cryptocurrency investments. There was also an incident whereby the scammers used fake names and images to appeal for investments in the name of the fund. Some of the interactions have been undertaken using social media accounts on platforms like Facebook. The accounts have since been taken down, with the complainants having made relevant reports to the police and their banks. The Super Fund has confirmed that they do n ..read more
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Tax Break for Long-Term Rental Investors
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
Housing minister, Megan Woods, has announced a change in rental housing policy that will allow landlords to enjoy tax breaks if they meet a certain criterion designed to promote access to affordable long-term rentals for kiwis. Landlords that own 20-plus units in one development and that offer tenancy agreements of at least 10 years will be able to claim interest deductibility on mortgages under this new deal. This is a U-turn on an earlier government decision made last year to end tax breaks for landlords. The earlier tax breaks saw landlords able to deduct the interest on their mortgages for ..read more
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Kiwis Investing More Despite Volatile Economic Times
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
In a new report from the Financial Services Council (FSC) titled “Money and You: Investing in Volatile Times”, it has been found that there is a growing number of New Zealanders that are choosing to invest in financial products. About 4 in 5 Kiwis were found to be doing so, with 88% using digital finance tools for their transactions and monitoring of banking, insurance and KiwiSaver products. According to the report, there has been progress in micro-investing, with 18.6% of respondents having confirmed having used micro-investing platforms while an additional 15% planning to do so in future. A ..read more
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Top NZ Banks Lower Home Loan Rates
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
Over the last few days, three of New Zealand’s top banks have announced a reduction in their home loan rates. All this while multiple central banks across the world hike interest rates in an attempt to tame inflation. ANZ, BNZ, and Westpac have all recently slashed their home loan rates, easing a bit of pressure on borrowers. ANZ reduced its special one-year rate from 5.35% to 4.99% and lowered its 18-month rate from 5.65% to 5.29%. Standard rates on home loans where borrowers had less than 20% equity dropped by 20 to 36 basis points for terms between 6 to 18 months. Three-year special and sta ..read more
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Small Business Wage Increases Match Inflation
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
According to the Small Business Index report generated by online accounting software firm Xero, small businesses have increased wages by 6.8% annually. This comes close to matching the year-on-year annual inflation rate recorded in June of 7.3%. The wage hike is the highest since the series began in January 2017, with the construction sector having the highest wage growth of 8.1%, followed by manufacturing with 7.2%. Overall, the Small Business Index increased 23 points in June to a high of 146 points. This growth was driven by the surge in wage growth and small business job strength across th ..read more
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Inflation Hits Highest Level in Three Decades
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
A report by Statistics New Zealand has found that the consumer price index (CPI) has risen 7.3% in the second quarter of the year, up from 6.9% in the first quarter. This is the fastest increase on record since June 1990 when the CPI rose by 7.6%. The CPI rose 1.7% quarter on quarter, which is just slightly slower than the 1.8% increase recorded in the first quarter. This result is however higher than the 1.5% increase that economists predicted for the quarter which would have led to a 7% or 7.1% annual rise. This outcome means that the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) can be expected to fur ..read more
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RBNZ Hikes Benchmark Interest Rate To 2.5percent
Accountancy Insurance Blog
by James Noonan
1y ago
In another attempt to control inflation, the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has raised the benchmark interest rate by half a percentage point to 2.5%. This is the third time this year, following similar hikes in April and May, that the RBNZ has raised the official cash rate by 50 basis points. The bank has also said that the rate may be expected to peak at 4% by late next year. Another hike may be considered during August Monetary Policy Statement. The RBNZ has stated that its policy-setting committee was comfortable with the aggressive policy path that has been projected in May and that e ..read more
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