Topic: Claimable Expenses - Kiwitax - Small Business & Rental Property Accountants

New Mixed Use of Assets Rules

The government are changing the tax rules around private use of assets such as holiday homes, boats, aircraft and so on (not road vehicles though). The idea is to prevent people having assets setup as businesses but not sufficiently hiring them out yet still claiming expenses to reduce tax. For all people who own such assets and also use them privately either personally or for friends and family t... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property Record Keeping Tax Compliance Private Use

Posted 15/07/2013

Making Major Repairs or Improvements to Rental Property?

If you are thinking about or are in the process of making large scale repairs and/or improvements to your rental property there may be tax implications surrounding the deductibility of the costs. In most cases any improvements will be capital in nature and not a deductible expense under repairs & maintenance. In some cases they may not be subject to depreciation either. Please contact us for ... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property

Posted 17/06/2013

Kiwitax Vehicle Log Books - Available Free to Clients

Keeping a log book to record vehicle use is essential for ensuring an accurate expense claim. To help make this process a little easier we've had some small log books printed and these are available to clients for free. These are useful for both business and rental property owners. If you would like one (or more for multiple vehicles) please ask, we'll pop it into the post asap. Prefer an el... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Record Keeping Vehicles Client Care Freebies

Posted 13/05/2013

Removal of Depreciation on Buildings for Tax Deductions

From the 1 April 2011 financial year and onwards, there is no longer the ability to claim depreciation on buildings with an estimated useful life of 50 years or more. However chattels (for example stoves, carpets, dishwashers etc) are still able to be depreciated. This rule change will predominantly affect rental property investors and will have the result of creating less loss or more profit whi... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property Depreciation Tax Compliance

Posted 3/03/2011

Important Changes to Claiming Building Depreciation

A significant change this year is depreciation can no longer be claimed on most buildings. Currently depreciation on buildings is treated as a loss of value and is used to offset income generated. This change has been made as it is rare for a building to decrease in value yet tax payers could effectively devalue buildings to reduce tax. For people or businesses with buildings who are currently cla... More

Topics: Income Tax Claimable Expenses Rental Property Depreciation Tax Compliance

Posted 8/02/2011

Should I Spend More Money to Save Tax?

People often ask us if it's a good idea to spend money to save tax. The idea is by creating additional expense the business can claim the cost as an expense in the business income tax return. This does work but it depends on a few factors. The key thing to understand is that when a business buys something it doesn't "get back" the full purchase price via its tax return. The most it will save you ... More

Topics: Income Tax Claimable Expenses Guides

Posted 20/09/2010

Financial Year End Tax Tips

With the 31st March coming up, here are a few things you can do to make things go smoother for your annual accounting and income tax returns. Debtors - review the people that are owing you money, are there any on your list that are unlikely to pay? If so there is no use paying tax on them! Write off all bad debts prior to 31 March so they don't show up on your debtors list. You can still chase th... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Accounting Record Keeping Guides Client Care

Posted 23/03/2010

Employee Vehicle Reimbursements

If you are paying your employees a motor vehicle allowance as a part of their salary package this is taxed as a part of their wages. A better way would be for the employee to submit their actual expenses for reimbursement or submit a mileage claim. Both of these are non-assessable in the hands of the employee and are claimable as a tax deduction for the business, therefore removing the need for th... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Tax Compliance Vehicles Salary & Wages

Posted 9/11/2009 – Updated 3/09/2014

Tax Saving Downloads

Here's some handy tax saving downloads... Bonus Tax Saving Expense Claims Business Expenses You Can Claim to Save Tax Rental Property Tax Saving Expenses Any questions please ask. Hope it helps! More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Freebies

Posted 17/04/2009

Vehicle Ownership Vs Leasing - A Brief Overview

The benefits of leasing a vehicle are: Get to claim the lease as a monthly expense. May have an upgrade option after a certain period with keeping the lease payments roughly the same. Still get to claim running costs – e.g petrol, repairs, registration etc. The disadvantages of leasing are: Paying monthly payments for a vehicle you usually won't own at the end of lease. No deprec... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Business FBT Vehicles Guides

Posted 16/01/2009

Using Your Home As Your Office

You are allowed to claim a proportion of your home costs for running your business from home. The percentage claimable is worked out based on the area of your office divided by the area of your home - for example say your office is 15sqm and your home is 100sqm then 15% of your costs are claimable. So keep all of your home costs, invoices and statements including rates, power, mortgage interest, r... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Business Record Keeping Tax Compliance Family Home Guides

Posted 7/10/2008

Advertising / Commission Costs When Selling a Rental Property

If you pay costs to advertise the sale of your rental property, these are not claimable as a cost but will come off the sale price once the property is sold. This is the same for commission paid to an agent when selling the property - it will reduce the sale price. More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property Tax Compliance

Posted 7/10/2008 – Updated 23/09/2014

What Is Depreciation On A Rental Property?

[Update: Please note depreciation is not allowed on buildings now] Depreciation is the devaluation of your rental property building at a small percentage per year – this becomes a cost like rates, interest etc and makes your overall loss bigger – which equals better tax refunds. When you come to sell the property or move into it yourself, the sale price/current value is accounted for ... More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property Depreciation

Posted 6/10/2008

Repairs On a Rental Property - Are They An Expense Or Improvement?

You are only allowed a deduction for repairs and maintenance where the expenditure is required to maintain an asset in the condition it was initially acquired. If you add something extra to the house – this is likely to be an improvement and claimable for depreciation only. More

Topics: Claimable Expenses Rental Property

Posted 6/10/2008