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Tax, law and invoicing in the trades — New Zealand

9 posts for this country. We write our own posts per country instead of translations — the source and the date it was checked sit under every one.

  • The outgoing documents list in New Zealand dollars: columns for number, document type, recipient, date, due date, gross amount, outstanding amount and status; invoices, quotes and an interim invoice sit side by side, the drafts still showing a dash where the number belongs, and a summary line under the table adding the documents together with the amount still outstanding.
    Zirko Redaktion8 min read

    Register for GST in NZ: $60,000, last year or next

    The test is not last year's turnover. It is the last twelve months or the next twelve, which means one signed contract can make a business liable before it has been paid a cent of it.

  • The preview of a finished invoice as the customer receives it: a letterhead with the plumbing firm's name and address, the recipient's address block, the invoice number and the date, a subject and project line, then an item table with quantity, unit, description, price and total, and beneath it the net total, a GST line at the standard rate and the gross total, followed by the payment terms.
    Zirko Redaktion9 min read

    Sample invoice NZ: the $200 and $1,000 lines

    Two figures decide what a New Zealand invoice must carry. Since 1 April 2023 the rules hang on taxable supply information, and the words tax invoice are required nowhere.

  • Zirko Redaktion10 min read

    Adjudication in New Zealand: five working days to down tools

    Any party to a construction contract can refer any dispute to adjudication, even one already before a court. The determination is enforceable as a District Court judgment.

  • An aerial view of a building site: two red tower cranes stand over a part-built structure with timber-framed walls on a concrete base, surrounded by stacks of prefabricated wall panels and yellow earthmoving machines.
    Zirko Redaktion9 min read

    Building Act warranties you cannot contract out of

    Section 362I implies six warranties into every contract for building work on a household unit, despite any contrary provision. Section 362Q gives twelve months to notify a defect.

  • Several building drawings laid over one another showing a floor plan and a section, with a pencil resting on top.
    Zirko Redaktion9 min read

    Licensed Building Practitioner: what restricted work covers

    Five trades, two building elements, one licence class each. Restricted building work is set by an Order in Council, and every LBP who carries out or supervises it owes a record of work.

  • Zirko Redaktion10 min read

    Payment claims and payment schedules: twenty working days

    Under the Construction Contracts Act 2002 a payment claim meeting six requirements, with the right attachments, turns silence into a debt. Get one of the six wrong and it does not.

  • Zirko Redaktion10 min read

    Residential building contracts: the $30,000 line

    Above $30,000 including GST you must hand over prescribed disclosure information and a checklist before signing, and the contract must be written with sixteen specified matters.

  • Zirko Redaktion10 min read

    Retentions are trust money, account or no account

    The 2023 amendments made retention money trust property automatically, the moment the contract allows it to be withheld. Not keeping it in a complying bank account is an offence.

  • Zirko Redaktion9 min read

    The Site Safety Card is not the law: what the law asks

    Site Safe is a not-for-profit membership organisation. Its passport card is a contractual entry requirement on most large sites, not a statutory one. The Act asks for something else.