New Partner and a new name from 1 January 2019

I’m delighted to announce that Rachel Liddell will be joining me from the 1 January 2019 as my business partner. The company’s name will change to Liddell and Crook Ltd. Some of you have already met Rachel as she has been working with us for over a year now. Rachel has been running her own accounting practice in Bishopdale Mall. She is your go-to person for all things Xero.

New Staff!

We’re also welcoming onboard Phia Venter as our senior accountant. Phia is going to work for us 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, and will be involved in the annual accounting work, so you will definitely get to meet her over the next year!

We’re also employed Annaliese Graham (very part-time student!) to help us with filing, scanning and general office work. Annaliese will also be updating our records for Trusts and Company’s, as we work towards meeting our obligations under the Anti Money Laundering and Countering of Financing of Terrorism Act. (AML/CFT for short!) See more of this on the next page.

And

We have a new Credit Manager onboard our team. Sharon McKeeman will be making calls to clients, introducing herself, and following up on any overdue accounts. If you are having any cash flow problems and think you may be late in meeting our terms, please feel free to call Sharon directly and work with her on this. Her Direct Dial is 027 282 9885.

Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act

We need to ask you for information

New Zealand has a law called the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the AML/CFT law” for short). Recent changes to the AML/CFT Act mean that from 1 October 2018 accountants must comply with its requirements.

We must now obtain and verify information from prospective and (eventually) existing clients about a range of things. This is part of what the AML/CFT law calls “customer due diligence” and is a similar obligation to that imposed on banks and lawyers who have been subject to this regime for some time now.

Customer Due Diligence Requirements

We need to ask for documents that verify your identity including your full name, your date of birth and your address.

To confirm these details, documents such as your driver’s license, passport, or birth certificate, and documents that show your address – such as a current bank statement or utilities bill – will be required. We must sight the originals.

For existing clients, we will slowly gather up this information each time we see you, or call you if we need to get it sorted before then.

If you cannot provide the required information

If we are not able to obtain the required information from you, it is likely we will not be able to act for you.  Because the law applies to everyone, we will need to ask for the information even if you have been a long-standing client.

Payroll Payday Filing

You may have heard that there’s a change coming to payroll filing.

So what is changing?

From 1 April 2019 everyone will have to file a PAYE return every time you pay wages. So if you’re currently paying wages weekly, you’ll be filing your PAYE returns every week, instead of once a month as we do now. They will need to be filed within two working days for online filers and seven working days for paper filers. CONTACT US NOW FOR SUPPORT

To-Do

• You don’t want to be filing a manual return each payday, so if you’re still paying manually, start using the IR-File to file PAYE returns online
  Or better yet, get onto an online payroll software package. These will send the information directly to the IRD without any further forms to fill in.
• Make sure you have the address and date of birth for all your employees, it will be hard to get this information once they’ve left.
• Consider changing your paydays to fortnightly instead of weekly.
• Take all the stress away and get us to file your PAYE returns.
• Have a look at the free Seminars and Webinars at this link

Christmas Holidays

On a brighter note!

We are closing for Christmas on Friday the 21 December 2018.

The last day at the Amberley office will be 12 December 2018.

Re-opening – Christchurch – 14 January 2019 and Amberley 16 January 2019!