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Many people dream of buying a business and turning a small idea into a big success. The attractions are in making large profits, being your own boss, making your own decisions and employing other people to do your work and having time to think of other small ideas to grow… Buying an existing business gives you a kick-start in premises, plant, machinery, staff, plus brands, goodwill, marketing, databases – all assets that are attractive to a prospective buyer.

Former restaurant owner gets home detention for false income reporting

“A former Wellington restaurant owner has been sentenced to five months home detention and 200 hours of community work for filing false Income Tax and GST returns and evading tax.

Darrell Earl Antonopoulos plead guilty to three charges of aiding or abetting his company, Whonere Holdings Limited, trading as La Casa Pasta restaurant, to provide false Income Tax returns and 24 charges of providing false GST returns to Inland Revenue with the intention of evading tax. Mr Antonopoulos was charged under the Tax Administration Act.

Today the new tax changes come in for those of us still left in the rental property market. It’s the start of a new financial year and it doesn’t feel so new anymore. We are all in the throes of electing to change to LTCs, we know about the depreciation changes and we know that our rental property losses won’t have such an effect on our tax this year – but what about this year? What is going to happen to the rental property market, particularly in Auckland where one of the biggest shows in town is going to arrive in a few months time?

The Tax Changes – are they making you worried about your future losses or is it back to fundamentals in property investment.

I would say that very few people enter the world of property investment thinking foremost about the way that they will benefit from being able to depreciate assets and thereby gain an annual tax rebate.

If you sell your family home and are lucky enough to make a good profit to help with the purchase of your next family home – don’t worry about it – if it’s all straight up and uncomplicated and the time factor is reasonable and you are doing what you say you are doing the IRD won’t be interested as the profits from the sale of a family home are generally not taxable. You will need to declare it on an IR3 – as an individual tax return and tell the IRD what you are doing and how all the figures are worked out.

>Monitoring financials and keeping track of rent payments coming in are aspects of rental property ownership which landlords often struggle with. With all the changes to rental property taxation like depreciation and the LAQC changes and new LTC’s it will be more important than ever to keep on top of the financials and budgets to make sure you have sufficient cash flow and plan for taxes before the end of the financial year. The reason landlords and property investors often struggle with this area is that they do not have an adequate system in place. Xero is an ideal solution for property investors whether they are small scale investors with only one or two properties or have large investment portfolios.