Money: Jeremy Tauri says tax time is more trying than ususal

Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.

Nothing is more certain than taxes and now that we're past April 7, most of us who are self-employed will have GST returns and provisional tax payments coming up on May 7.

Trying to preserve cashflow is difficult at best of times during April and May but now it is even tougher.

If you haven't managed to pay your terminal tax that was due April 7 because of the impacts of Covid-19 then you're probably aware of the IRD's compassionate response to write off interest and penalties that maybe incurred.

What you may not know is that some of the automated systems may still be rolling. As an example the payment will still show on MYIR as overdue and the system will still calculate penalties and interest on the amounts — don't panic, IRD says these can be worked through later.

Contact IRD when you can, through the MYIR system is best.

Over the last few weeks the MYIR service has likely had a surge in its use. There's probably a few things you need to be aware of when you login to MYIR.

Any amounts due are in red, even if they're not overdue. I've had some people reach out in a panic about the red numbers in MYIR. Upcoming payments are also shown in red. Make sure to click into the periods to view what's due and when. Any amounts owing to you will appear in green.

If you've had debt prior to the IRD. You're still likely to get reminders for this. It's likely interest and penalties will still apply on these amounts due.

You can set up or request an instalment arrangement through the MYIR portal. There is a request an instalment arrangement link in the top right of the MYIR Portal.

The IRD now have reduced their minimum rates for instalment arrangements to $20 weekly, $40 fortnightly and $80 monthly. The minimum amounts prior to these changes were just over double what is proposed now. It's probably worth looking ahead and seeing if your provisional tax payment amount due in May still applies. If your income is down then you may be able to pay less than what was originally due.

Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.
www.plusca.co.nz