An update from us in light of the COVID-19 outbreak

By now I am sure you have had many communications regarding COVID-19, but from Schurr and Ireland we felt it was important to communicate as we approach 31 March and with the potential impact now faced by your business.

Through this period of uncertainty, our key priorities are:

• the health of our team; and
• maintaining the quality and continuity of our services to you, our clients.

Please note, this communication is accurate as of today and Taranaki has just confirmed its first cases. We will continue to monitor and be guided by the latest information available from the Government, Ministry of Health and the World Health Organisation.

Internally, we have increased our hygiene measures, asked team members to limit travel and encouraged any team member to self-isolate as needed to protect our office environments. We have been working hard to improve our technology platform over the past few years. All team members have the ability to work from home if required. This ability to work remotely means we can continue to support your business by telephone, email, and where possible by video conferencing if face to face communication becomes harder through this period.

Through this period we are also asking that both our clients and our team members reduce any non-essential contact. This means any travel our team does to your place of work, any medium to large scale events and face to face meetings will be reduced during this period.

We will be increasing our communication through this period regarding any IRD relief measures, Government support available, any business governance and leadership actions for you to support your business through this time.

Currently, we are aware of the following relief measures:

IRD Support

The IRD has offered for following measures for businesses impacted by the COVID-19 virus including:

• the possible writing off of use-of-money interest;
• flexibility regarding estimating provisional tax;
• arrangements regarding any inability to meet tax payments;
• access to paid parental leave with falling incomes; and
• some relief regarding late filing and late payments penalties.

At this point, we are not aware of any deferral of tax payment deadlines, including the 7 April deadline for payment of 2019 terminal tax for those with extensions of time.

You can read more about the IRD relief here. Also, please contact with any questions you may have and how this may impact your business.

We are constantly monitoring the situation and as things change we will provide updates.

The Government Support Package

The Government has also announced a $12.1 billion dollar business continuity package for those businesses affected by COVID-19.

The key platforms in the this package are:

• A wage subsidy scheme;
• Leave and self-isolation support;
• Business cashflow and tax measures regarding provisional tax thresholds, small asset depreciation and re-introducing commercial depreciation.

You can read more about these measures here, contact us to discuss in more detail and we will communicate more guidance in detail in the next few days.

We are very aware that this has now become a stressful and uncertain time for everyone. This is a time where looking after yourselves, your family, your teams, and proactively managing your business and cashflow are paramount.

Please feel free to contact us if you have specific concerns and we will help where we can.

Regards

Tom, Scott and the Schurr & Ireland Team