We at JZR Accountants & Consultants hope everyone is keeping safe during this lockdown period. Things have certainly changed very fast as we go into alert level 3 again here in Auckland.

To do our part for the community, we would like to let you know the latest developments in terms of government support payments for businesses, so that you are taking advantage of most of the government support available. There are two main support payments which might be relevant to you.

Resurgence Support Payment (RSP)

The Resurgence Support Payment (RSP) is a payment to help support viable and ongoing business or organisations due to a COVID-19 alert level increase to level 2 or higher.

Each time the COVID-19 alert level is increased from level 1, the Government may decide to activate the Resurgence Support Payment. It will generally be activated when the period of increased alert level is 7 days or longer

Auckland went into alert level 3 at 11.59pm on 14 February 2021, and came back down to alert 1 at 11.59pm on 22 February 2021. A total period of more than 7 days. As such, the RSP was activated for this lockdown period and eligible businesses can now apply. The last day to apply for the RSP is 22 March 2021.

Auckland again when into alert level 3 at 6am on 28 February 2021. Assuming that this lockdown is for 7 days or more, the RSP should also be available for the second lockdown period, in addition to any wage subsidies. Applications for this lockdown period is not yet available.

Eligibility Criteria

Your business must have experienced at least a 30% drop in revenue compared between:

• The 7 day period, 15 February 2021 to 21 February 2021 (inclusive), VS

• A regular 7 day revenue period that starts and ends in the 6 weeks prior to the increased alert level.

Both the affected revenue period and the comparison period must be calculated retrospectively. The calculations must be based on what has happened, not a forecast of what might happen.

Make sure you keep a record of the calculations in case it is requested. This includes:

• dates of the affected revenue period and comparison period
• amount of revenue earned in each period
• how the revenue drop has been calculated.

How Much Can You Receive?

The RSP is calculated as $1,500 plus $400 per FTE (up to 50 FTE). The maximum payment is $21,500. Sole traders can receive a payment of up to $1,900.

• Employees working up to 20 hours per week are considered part time (0.6 FTE)
• Employees working 20 hours or more per week are considered full-time (1.0 FTE)

Businesses will have their payment capped at four times (4x) the amount their revenue has dropped over the 7-day period. For example, if your business has 3 FTEs, they would be entitled to $2,700. However, if their revenue drop was $500, their RSP payment would be limited to $2,000.

Tax Implications

Payments received under the RSP are not subject to income tax. Expenditure funded by payments under the RSP is not deductible.

GST-registered businesses will return GST on payments received under the RSP. These businesses will be able to claim input tax deductions for expenditure funded by payments under the RSP.

How Can You Apply?

You will be able to apply for this directly through your business’ MyIR. Click here for more information

Alternatively, JZR as your tax agent can also apply for this on your behalf through our tax agent’s MyIR login. Can you please get in touch with us if you would like our assistance with this.

Wage Subsidy Scheme

The Wage Subsidy Scheme will be available nationwide if any part of the country moves to Alert Level 3 or above for seven days or more.

Businesses and the self-employed will be eligible if they experience a 40% drop in predicted or actual revenue over a consecutive 14-day period, compared to a typical fortnightly revenue in the six weeks before the rise in alert level. You would need to be able to show that the revenue drop is due to the change in alert level, not just COVID-19 in general.

More detailed information regarding this wage subsidy is coming soon from the government. In the meantime, you can register here for updates, for when the details are announced and applications are open.

You will be able to apply and receive both the RSP and the Wage Subsidy at the same time once the applications are open for the second lockdown period.

We are here to support you through this time. Please do not hesitate to contact one of the team if you have any questions.

Kia Kaha,

JZR Accountants & Consultants

The Christmas shutdown time can be busy and eventful for most small businesses across New Zealand, who are preparing for the holiday season.

To ensure that your Christmas break stress-free and for the best interests of your business, We thought it might be useful to prepare a quick list of items you should focus on before the shutdown:

Payroll: Have you managed to get your staff’s holiday pay sorted? Working out what an employee gets paid for taking a day off on annual holidays will depend partly on what they have earned in the previous 12 months. Using a software like Smart Payroll should also help in minimising these hassles and ensuring your staff gets payed correctly and on time. To know more about managing your staff’s payroll, you can simply get in touch with us by contacting us on the details provided in the article below.

It is also important to note that Boxing Day and the second of January (day after New Year’s Day) fall on a Saturday this year. So, if you have an employee who wouldn’t normally work on Saturday, their holiday entitlement is transferred to the following Monday. If your employee would normally work on Saturday, then they’ll get their holiday entitlements on Saturday (the calendar date of the public holiday).

Cash-Flow Forecasting: It’s imperative for you to have a look at your cashflow forecast over December-January. This should help you prepare your business for the holiday period, and ensure you have sufficient cash reserves during the holiday season, to ensure your business is operating smoothly.

Tax Obligations: This is another important aspect of your business you should focus on before the shutdown, especially if you are impacted by seasonal revenue (such as Christmas revenue as a retailer). Both November and December GST are due for payment in January as well as provisional tax.  If you are concerned that you may not be able to pay the tax due, or if you’re facing any other issues get in touch with us and we can look at the available options in the current situation.

Make sure to check on these aspects of your business before you head into the holiday break, and in case your facing any issues with the above items, please get in touch with us by calling us on +64-9-972-2236 or email us at info@jzr.co.nz.

Increasing sales is not only just an important marketing objective, but also an essential means of maintaining business viability, and potentially expanding your growth. There are many efficient and sometimes inexpensive ways of using marketing to drive your sales. In this article, we’ll be outlining some of those strategies, to help you grow your business .

Know Your Customers

Understanding your customers, will help you gain key insight on how your marketing communication can be improved or altered on your products or services. CRM tools such as HubSpot, Marketo, and Salesforce help you get direct and valuable feedback from your customers. Make sure to check the feedback that your customers are giving you on a regular basis.

Feedback from your customers in such instances, can be used to update your products by fixing issues, making improvements or adding features which might be beneficial to users. This feedback can also be used to create new products or services aimed at targeting a new set of potential customers or fill a void in the market, thereby helping you capitalise on a new opportunity.

You can also use any positive feedback from your customers to leverage your brand identity. This allows for increased sales to existing customers who trust the brand. This can also help cement your reputation amongst potential customers.

Diversify Your Market

 Another effective means of growing your sales, is by diversifying your market. This means finding new ways of attracting customers across different market segments, by introducing new products or services. For eg: a company with a high-end product might also look at an opportunity to launch a ‘low-end’ or ‘mid-range’ product to help attract new customers from those segments. Study what your competitors are doing across these segments, and use that research data to help you design a new product or service for your business. While the profit margins might differ across different segments, it allows your business to widen its network, and helps substantially by increasing sales volumes.

 This in turn also helps build brand awareness amongst different segments, thereby adding more value to your brand.

Marketing Your Promotions

 Another method to successfully drive sales for your business is through varied sales promotions. Market your different sales promotions, like coupons, discounts, rebates or give-aways to attract a segment of price-driven and budget conscious customers. Marketing is a great tool to let potential customers know about the various offers and promotions being offered by your business.

These promotions will not only help new customers get acquainted with the brand, but will also help your business, by giving it a chance to offer high quality products or services and potentially convert them. This will help your business in generating a higher customer lifetime value. This is a great method for both new as well as existing companies to not only build brand awareness but also generate quick profits.

Create and Integrated Marketing Mix

A culmination of traditional advertising through broadcast, print and digital media should help you build and effective Integrated Marketing Communication Mix for your brand. The increase in the use of the internet and other social media platforms over the last decade will help small businesses in integrating a variety of promotional tools into their messaging through a relatively inexpensive method.

Digital Marketing is one of the most inexpensive and quantifiable marketing mediums available in present times. Social media campaigns, SMS broadcasting, emailers and banner ads are some of the most common ways of marketing or advertising your brand on a digital platform. The reach and engagement of these platforms is also large, and can be measured easily. This helps your understand whether the messaging and communication you are using for your brand is effective or not.

A healthy mix of the above three should help you in generating sales, and also any long-term goals that you have set for the organisation.

To know more about how you can work to keep your business sustainable and healthy, stay tuned for our exclusive Business Health Check-up Guide, which will you the opportunity as a business owner to identify any improvements or opportunities that you must make to keep your business healthy. It will also help you understand how your business is performing in comparison to the industry.

 For any other queries regarding your business, feel free to get in touch with us my emailing us at info@jzr.co.nz or call us on +64-9-972-2236