Healy Consultants provides NZ resident director, completes accounting and tax obligations for NZ company

Since 2003, Healy Consultants Group assists multinational Clients with business set up in New Zealand, including i) New Zealand company incorporation ii) New Zealand corporate bank account opening iii) company secretary and legal registered office iv) relevant licence applications v) New Zealand tax registration vi) assistance to source office premises and vii) employee recruitment and visas.

In June 2021 my Canadian Client, who is based in Ireland, approached Healy Consultants Group requesting our assistance to renew their New Zealand company, including: i) renewing the legal registered office address ii) filing annual returns iii) filing for Goods and Services Tax (GST) iv) renewing the nominee resident director services and v) ensuring the company meets its New Zealand accounting and tax obligations in a complete, accurate and timely manner.

The company is a business consultancy.

After a brief email and phone exchange, I e-mailed the Client a draft invoice outlining our fees to complete the above services. Our Client duly settled the invoice and we then requested due diligence from our Client in order to begin the engagement.

• Engagement planning

  • Healy Consultants Group’s Financial Controller, Sharon, sent a renewal invoice to the Client outlining our New Zealand services fees. In June 2021, the Client settled the invoice and Sharon sent our Client a receipt confirming this.
  • Thereafter, I was assigned to handle this engagement. I provided our Client with a detailed engagement project plan outlining i) the engagement process ii) a breakdown of weekly and monthly deliverables iii) the timeline to complete the engagement and iv) any expected engagement problems and solutions.
  • This detailed project plan helps our multinational Client visualise the engagement over the coming months. Consequently, our Clients can prepare the necessary documents to complete the renewal and fulfil the accounting and tax obligations for the company.

• Legal registered office address and nominee resident director services

  • Our Client wanted to renew their legal registered office address for their New Zealand company. Then, I assisted to renew the legal registered office address within a day by paying the service fee to our affiliated office for using their office address for our client’s business.
  • For the nominee resident director, we contacted the individual in New Zealand and paid their service fee to act in this role for the financial year. It took a day to complete. During the company’s incorporation, there was an agreement signed by the nominee director which agree to provide his service for our client’s business.

• Annual return and tax filings

  • I was tasked with filing the annual returns with the New Zealand Company Registry which I completed within one day via the online government portal and before the due date of 31 July 2021. No information was required from client during the submission.
  • Thereafter, I assisted with GST registration and filing with the Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand for our Client’s company. This is completed online, and was completed in three weeks.

• New Zealand Accounting & Tax obligations

  • Healy Consultants Group filed a dormant income tax return for the company for the financial year end (FYE) by 31 March 2020 as the bank statements provided by the client is incomplete and showing less transaction. Then, my team and I quickly realized the company is active and there are some invoices the company issued during the year.
  • We alerted the Client to this, informing them that filing a tax return for an active company is more time consuming and would require i) additional fees and ii) the Client to supply bank statements and a trial balance.
  • The Client was slow at paying the additional fees and sending the requested documents. However by November 2021 this was done, and we appointed a tax agent in New Zealand to prepare the financial report for FYE 2020 and 2021 (by 31 March for both years).
  • The draft financial report was sent to the Client for approval and e-signature. Once this had been received by the tax agent, the agent resubmitted the tax filing for FYE 2020 and 2021 to the New Zealand IRD. Our client’s entity has zero tax payable in New Zealand.

• Engagement completion

  It took around eight months to complete this engagement. In February 2022 we sent an engagement completion email to our Client, including:

  • Proof of government filings such as annual return and income tax returns.
  • A copy of the annual financial report for our Client’s record.
  • Thereafter, our Business Website Department requested a professional reference from our Client as well as an online review.