IRD employers Kiwisaver burden rant

[Winston001]

I'm in a small business and have been doing PAYE returns for over 20 years without any problems.

Along comes Kiwisaver. Now, I think it is a good idea and the sensible course is the employer deducting the money to pay to IRD. They then send it to the fund. Fine.

It's complex but even so I managed to get it right from 1 July 2007. Until this year.

Now that the employer must also pay Kiwisaver and claims a contribution payment, the system seems to have gone to hell in a handbasket. We've paid 4 cheques for various additional amounts assessed by IRD, plus had to ask for penalties to be remitted. I have in front of me 20 pages of statements plus letters from IRD which I cannot reconcile.

When asked ,they say their assessments take 6 weeks so we'll always be behind if there are errors.

And do you know the huge staff we have.....?? 3. Plus a schoolgirl for an hour each afternoon.

Lord knows how employers with half a dozen or more staff get on. The amount of time wasted is extraordinarily frustrating.

Rant over.

[dino3310]

well worth the rant, I'm surprised you did it with out swearing, IRD can be plain and simple cunts especially when they think you owe them.
sometimes wonder if there systems are so complex that they dont know how to work them.

[Pwalo]

I am so glad that I'm not a self emloyed contractor any more! Have you thought aboy hiring an accountant for a couple of hours to go through things? Sometimes it's worth having a bit of outside input.

[Gremlin]

I could see this happening... we have one full time employee

They didn't want to administer all that shit, so happily opted out of Kiwisaver

I would rather shoot myself in the head

[Oakie]

Lord knows how employers with half a dozen or more staff get on. The amount of time wasted is extraordinarily frustrating. :

We use a payroll software package to do it for us It helps if you have a good one though. ('MYOB Comacc' does it for me.) Changes come along (like they will again in October for tax cuts) so you load the latest update and you're away ... not quite laughing ... but at least not crying with frustration. (86 employees here incidentally)
The only thing I have to calculate when I do our fortnightly IRD returns is whether It'll take me three steps or four to get to the printer to retrieve the IR345 report. Pay the figure on the bottom using banking software and done! Don't even have to fill out the IR345 as that's created as a .csv file which is then uploaded to the IRD website. Hah. Too easy!

I know what you're saying about reconciling those IRD statements though. I gave up trying a long time ago.

[scott411]

fair point on your rant, it can be a nightmare, we have 13 employees so i know what you haev to go though,

as Oakie says above, a good payroll system is a must, we use IMS and have no problems, they have good back up, it unfortuantly adds a cost, but it saves you in the long run,

[spookytooth]

i couldn't bebothered with kiwi saver cant be assed with everything else ird expect you to do for free.Told workers opt out or find another job or go on contract.Worked for me

[Oakie]

.Told workers opt out or find another job or go on contract.Worked for me

Jeez I wouldn't be admitting that in a public forum. Seriously! Some employers are already being investigated by the guys in suits.

[Ocean1]

Got it sorted me.

Closed it down.

Can't be fucked with the bullshit.

[alanzs]

Plus a schoolgirl for an hour each afternoon.

You dog you!

[Mully]

You dog you!

Shit, beat me to it. First thing I thought of too.

[Max Headroom]

I employ three fulltime and one part-time staff, and I use IMS as well. Their program makes the whole thing very simple, and in all honesty Kiwisaver hasn't really complicated my payroll at all.

[davereid]

Got it sorted me.

Closed it down.

Can't be fucked with the bullshit.

Exactly what we did.

It was just getting to complicated for me and the Mrs to sort out, so we shut the doors on manufacturing and service work.

We just do what we can do on our own now, with Mrs Reid running the office, and me running the workshop its pretty cool and low stress.

[Winston001]

{Originally Posted by Winston001
Plus a schoolgirl for an hour each afternoon.}

You dog you!

A mans gotta do what a mans gotta do. Maybe that's why I'm so tired in the evenings.

[Ocean1]

Exactly what we did.

It was just getting to complicated for me and the Mrs to sort out, so we shut the doors on manufacturing and service work.

We just do what we can do on our own now, with Mrs Reid running the office, and me running the workshop its pretty cool and low stress.

Complex doesn't worry me when the work's both in my field and for my benefit. But I ain't a clerk, nor an accountant, certainly not an unpaid one.

So I trimmed my business down to my core interests, just me and an occasional specialist. Interestingly that wee trim cut 75% of my fixed overhead, (including wages), 20% from my weekly hours and improved my personal income.

It did, of course, remove a significant lump of cash from the local economy...