The past couple of weeks have been very unsettling for everyone affected by the recent earthquakes and flooding.

If your business has been affected by the extreme events, we want to let you know that there may be some assistance available to you.  Inland Revenue are waiving late filing fees and providing late payment options for some tax payments.  For more information on Inland Revenue and other assistance available please use the links below for further information.

• ird.govt.nz - extreme weather relief
  
• workandincome.govt.nz - earthquake-nov-2016
  
• charteredaccountantsanz.com - earthquake tax update from IRD
  
• business.govt.nz - feeling shaky after the quakes

You could also check with your bank to see if they can provide assistance as well – see below examples of the support announced by ANZ and Kiwibank:

• anz.co.nz - assistance customers impacted earthquakes
  
• kiwibank.co.nz - earthquake support

A flood of scam calls about unpaid taxes prompts warning from IRD - to read Catherine Groenestein's article (16 June 2016 on stuff.co.nz) and hear an audio of a phishing scam claiming to be the IRD click here

Heads-up

The new health and safety legislation has passed and we all need to start planning.

Businesses needs to be compliant by 4 April 2016, when the new Health and Safety at Work Act takes effect, replacing the Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992.

A lot of information is still to come on how the Act will operate.  Regulations will be released to clarify how it will work for different industries.  WorkSafe New Zealand will provide guidelines to businesses and workers.

The legislation has brought in new concepts of who is responsible, for what and where.  You need to be aware of these to assess whether your health and safety systems are adequate or if they need a reboot for your business to be compliant.

Our Special Alert newsletter relating to this legislation was emailed to clients today