What’s News
·  2011 Financial Accounts & Tax Returns
·  Meeting your tax commitments
·  Upcoming tax dates and deadlines
·  IRD Spam Emails
·  Record Keeping and Making your life easier—XERO

31 March 2011 Financial Accounts and Tax Returns
Wow is this year going as fast for you as it is for us at Active? Every year it
seems that the IRD throws more and more compliance or tax changes at us.
Over the last 12 months we have had a GST rise, and the lowering of company
and personal tax rates . On April 1 2011 we have seen the abolishment of the
LAQC regime and going forward there are some planned trust law changes
around gifting on October 1. The additional amount of paper work and administration
for all of us is certainly becoming more and more time consuming.
Coupled with the fact that at Active we have never had so many clients bring
their accounts into us so early has also helped time fly and we will do our utmost
to complete all your work as soon as possible.
We really do appreciate your business and ask for your understanding as we
work to completing all clients work in a timely manner. If there are upcoming
deadlines for you

MEETING YOUR TAX COMMITMENTS
With all the turmoil of recent times and an overall economic and general business
downturn meeting your tax payments and due dates can become increasingly
more difficult. We are finding the IRD are willingly to enter into repayment
plans if you/we make contact with IRD before they make contact with you/us.
A usually acceptable payment plan for the IRD is for you to clear the outstanding
tax(es) within 24 months. Unfortunately the interest will still apply but the IRD
usually stops any further penalties being added to your account and as long as
you keep up with the payment plan as well as meeting all the current tax deadlines
and payments. This maybe the breathing room your require to get the business
back on track.  Please contact us if you would like us to set this up for you.

RECORD KEEPING AND MAKING YOUR LIFE EASIER
One Word—XERO
As already mentioned the amount of compliance and paperwork
that we all go through is getting worse and I believe
the best way to gain some control and regain some
life back is to make your accounts and record keeping as
easy, simple and as quick as possible. So for our clients
that are struggling to keep up with their cashbook or excel
spreadsheets I can recommend XERO to you.
Simply XERO is an online accounting package that works
by downloading your bank information on a daily basis
into an easy to use accounting system. That you do not
need to purchase any software to run or sit a learners licence
to drive. So as long as you have access to the internet
you have access to XERO and your accounting records.
XERO is a full debtors and creditors system that also allows
you to send all your invoices and statements to your
customers directly from XERO.
XERO is therefore a web based accounting package that is
very intuitive, where all you do is code your bank transactions
as you go and behind the scenes XERO is working out
your GST return for you, building up a useable client database
and providing you with some excellent cash flow and
financial reporting tools as well.
One of XERO’s best features is that by having your accounts
on line you can also send us a link to view these
records as well. This allows us to give you more accurate
analysis and business advice with which to help you tax
plan going forward. This means of course there is no need
to send us a backup of your accounting ledger or print
out a whole lot of reports to send in for the end of year
accounts.
It is certainly not too late to transfer your records to
XERO either. We can catch you up very easily and effectively
especially with banks like ASB, National Bank and
Westpac allowing us to go back two years. I have a client
coming in this week that has said Ben I am sorry to do this
to you but I have done nothing but complete my GST returns
from bank statements for the last 16 months. The
plan for this client is to start from April 2010 using XERO,
download all the client bank transactions into XERO and
then use this as their onsite training lesson for XERO.
I know it is a busy time for all of us and there may never
be a good time to swap over to or start using XERO but I
think October 1 maybe just as good a time as any to have
a go.
The feedback from the 20+ clients that we have put on
XERO since April 1 has been very positive .The whole Active
team has recently become XERO certified and Active
has recently achieved gold partner status with XERO.


UPCOMING TAX DATES AND DEADLINES
Just when we thought we all didn’t have enough to do.
August 28th 2011 1st Prov Tax payment due for 31 March
2012 Balance Dates —Letters will be coming out later this
week. Any queries, concerns and/or changes or if you
haven’t received a letter or email from us and think you
should have please contact the office.
August 28th 2011 Is also the payment date for the next
round of two monthly GST returns. For our clients who we
complete these for please send in the usual information as
soon as possible. Anyone else that needs a help here
please call.
September 30 2011 Is the final date for a company to
change it’s status from a LAQC to a LTC. Otherwise the
company will default to QC status and lose the ability to
allocates losses to it’s shareholders going forward.. To
help enable us make the best decision for you please send
in your LAQC company records to us as soon as possible.

IRD WARNING—SPAM EMAILS
They’re back. It is this time of the year we start getting
the “IRD hoax” emails again. Using the client mind set
that it is tax time the fraudsters look to obtain your valuable
personal information. With a very authentic looking
website and a promise of a refund if you click the link and
supply your bank or credit card account information.
Please do not click the link or enter in any personal information.
As this could result in your account being compromised.
Any concerns here please contact us.

TEAM NEWS
Well it has certainly be a busy time for us at Active and
we thank all our clients for this. As you can see the team
has grown with three new faces with Danny, Joseph and
Sharon joining the team. We also welcome Kelly who has
replaced Carol on a full time basis in administration.

OUR TEAM
Back row: Joseph, John & Ben
Middle row: Janine, Bin, Francine, Chris, Sharon & Kelly
Front row: Tania, Arnold, Stefanie & Danny

Finally
From all the team at Active, take care, keep in touch and
spring is just around the corner..