BDO Know How, August 2015

BDO Know How is our bi-monthly business newsletter providing updates on key business and tax issues which you need to know to best optimise your business.

We explore:

• GST for online purchases
  On Tuesday the Government released a white paper on the collection of GST for online purchases. Oddly, it will not be you, the NZ purchaser, who has to return the GST on your overseas purchases. Under the proposals, it will be the overseas suppliers who will need to register for NZ GST, and return GST when they sell services (that includes e-books, music and videos) to kiwi consumers....
   
• Eurozone Crisis will it affect your business?
  With the Greek exit from the Eurozone narrowly averted for now, events in Europe have temporarily moved off the knife edge. However with the IMF warning that Greece’s public debt is now “highly unsustainable” and Spain and Italy needing to borrow a further €986 billion by 2017, the problems faced by the Eurozone are far from resolved....
   
• Easing the pain of tax payments
  Not making provisional tax payments on time or underpaying provisional tax can expose you to interest and late payment penalties. When it comes to paying income tax, any over or underpayment will attract interest, known as the use of money interest (“UOMI”) rate. UOMI is aimed at encouraging people to pay the right amount of tax at the right time while also providing compensation to you if you pay too much tax, and to the Government if you pay too little....
   
• Taxing Properties - new 2 year bright-line rule
  For those entering into sale and purchase agreements for property after 1 October this year, gains on sale of residential land may be taxed if the property is disposed of within 2 years of acquisition. It is being called “the bright line test”. The date of acquisition is important for this new 2 year rule. The day property is acquired will be the one registered on ‘Landline’ (rather than the date of the sale & purchase agreement). For subdivided land, the date of acquisition is the date when the unsubdivided land was acquired. Likewise, the date of disposal will be the date you enter into the contract of sale...
   
• App versus Website - what's the best for your business?
  If you think that an app for your business will more efficiently deliver existing goods and services to your customers, it is definitely worth considering but not at the cost of a responsive, mobile friendly website. Don’t think of apps as stand-alone projects but rather two gears in a cog simultaneously supporting each other. Where websites are a wealth of stream-lined information, apps provide the customer engagement, a rich marketing channel that cultivate customer loyalty...