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
T
he 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:
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be copied without modification and all pages must be included.
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we can assist further, please email McLean and Co as
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