It’s just gone another GST period, we hope you’ve filed & paid! This time of year we see clients struggling to keep on top of their GST obligations. Here are some ways to our clients find helpful to keep on top of GST and tax:
Don’t incur penalties!
Penalties and interest can add up when GST returns aren’t filed and returned on time.
Reconcile and Review
Keeping your books up to date is what will give you a current GST outstanding figure. You can compare this to any savings you have to see if you need to top them up. You can even ask your accountant to summarise any outstanding taxes for you during the year and review these with you.
Saver Account
A separate tax or GST saver account now comes standard with most bank accounts. While these pay very low interest its still a good idea to segment the money you have into separate funds in order to have money to pay when tax bills arise.
Setup a Weekly Payment
A weekly payment straight to the IRD really helps when the tax savings account starts to get raided. You can decide on any amount, but a good place to start is your last GST return, divide this by the number of weeks in your GST period and then setup an automatic payment to the following account:
http://www.ird.govt.nz/how-to/making-payments/electronic-payments/electronic-payments.html
Review Your pricing
A GST return “scare” might make it visible that you aren't pricing high enough to reflect the cost and value of your services. Review where you could be raising prices and set to adjust them
Should you need any help or advice with the above please get in contact or book a demo