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Articles by Matthew Gilligan

Covid-19 - Offices closed but business as usual

AUTHOR: Matthew Gilligan

POSTED: 23 March 2020

After the Covid-19 announcement today, all our staff will be working from home. We are well set up to do this, and our business will operate as per usual, with the following changes:

All meetings will be by phone or Skype
All events will be held online
We will not be able to receive postal or courier mail for the time being, so please send everything via email.

Support for our clients

We know this is a time of uncertainty for business owners, sole traders, the self-employed, and employees. To that end, on Saturday the Government announced measures to help businesses get through these tough times. And today (23 March) further support was announced.

As part of the economic package to help businesses survive the Covid-19 pandemic, the Government has outlined various ways they will offer support.

Wage subsidy

Businesses can apply for a wage subsidy of $585.80 per week for employees working over 20 hours per week, and $350.00 for those working less than 20.
The original package had a maximum cap for this subsidy of $150,000, but today that cap was removed.
All New Zealand employers are eligible for the wage subsidy, including new business or rapidly growing businesses. The government made another $4 billion available.
Find out more here: https://www.workandincome.govt.nz/products/a-z-benefits/covid-19-support.html

Rent freeze

Rent freezes are in place, and 'no cause' terminations have been extended to commercial tenants, to assist business owners who are struggling with rent payments.

Business finance guarantee

Banks agreed in principle to a 'business finance guarantee' scheme, under which the Government will underwrite business loans. That means you can write to your banker and ask for an overdraft underpinned by a government guarantee. We suggest everyone that needs it should do this immediately.

Quantitative Easing

With the government agreeing to buy $30 billion of bonds, we have NZ’s first ever quantitative easing. This is designed to keep interest rates low and stimulate the economy. This, coupled with the strong government initiatives looks like a very positive response from the government and should allay the fears of many. (For more on this, have a look at my blog about banking and debt.)

Summary

We know these are challenging times, and we will do our best at GRA to support you. If you have any concerns at all, please get in touch in any of the following ways:

Phone us on +64 9 522 7955
Email us on [email protected]
Fill in our online form
If you are a GRA accounting client, contact your Client Services Manager directly

Stay safe.

Request a Meeting

Matthew Gilligan
Director

09 522-7955

[email protected]

© Gilligan Rowe & Associates LP

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Disclaimer: This article is intended to provide only a summary of the issues associated with the topics covered. It does not purport to be comprehensive nor to provide specific advice. No person should act in reliance on any statement contained within this article without first obtaining specific professional advice. If you require any further information or advice on any matter covered within this article, please contact the author.

Comments

Testimonials

This letter is to express my appreciation for the assistance and encouragement of both Anthony Lipscombe and particularly John Heaslip over the last financial year. The period since activating my trading trust has been one of considerable stress, as well as personal development, as I embarked on this as a relative business neophyte with virtually no awareness of the contemporary requirements of running a business, particularly the financial records aspect. During much of this period I have therefore felt considerable out of my depth. However I have been lucky enough to have had the benefit of the advice and support of John Heaslip in rationalizing what was a fairly chaotic set of records of the first year property trading. I am able to say that John in particular, has been unstinting in his attention to my needs and has done so in a manner which has never alluded to my extremely rudimentary grasp of managing a business, or even of being unable to set out a spread sheet properly. The result of the above guidance is that now, although my trading trust would still not be able to operate without the advice of GRA, I do least feel a sense of satisfaction that I have got to my present point without major disaster and that my property trust does now have some kind of firmer basis for any future activities - Name withheld by request

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