Team
The word team is now commonly used by many organisations. It is an acronym for:-
Together
Everyone
Achieves
More
In that context, of collaborating, the outcome can be way beyond what any one person can do by themselves. However, the reality in New Zealand organisations is not that at all. It is “code” for:-
1) we’ll pass it on to our team.
2) by email.
3) it will sit in an email trough until someone runs out of something to do.
4) then it will be drawn out and acted on.
5) often this will be late (no sense of urgency), and the person has no background in the matter and gets it wrong.
6) there is no named person to take accountability when it is not acted on, is late or wrong.
This is all rather like the message on the phone “this call is being monitored for quality assurance purposes.” We all know that is not the reason, it is in case there is a dispute. The use of the words has got corrupted and no longer means what was intended.
Big organisations (including Public Service) need to wake up and provide services with accountability that can be identified back to an individual. We do not need faceless bureaucracy or big business anymore.
Tax Changes
The Government’s promised tax changes have not yet been implemented. Only when the law is changed are they certain. These include the brightline test on residential property sales being reduced to two years from 1/7/2024 and interest deductibility against residential rentals to be 50 per cent percent from 1/4/2023, 80 percent from 1/4/2024 and 100 percent from 1/4/2025.
The Trust tax rate goes to 39 percent from 1/4/2024 on income not all distributed to beneficiaries. However, it is likely that this will change for Trusts with modest income. The law change for this will need to be in place before then so watch out for a further announcement.
We shall be advising all affected clients on all of this ahead of and following the changes.
Treasury is pushing for a Capital Gains tax. That would be a disaster as the complexity, cost of administration and disruption caused would not justify it at all. It sounds good but it is not.
