If your business took an Small Business Cashflow Loan (SBCS loan), the start of the 2026 tax year is a great time to review how your repayments are looking.   For many businesses, the interest-free period has already ended, so 3% interest may now be ticking away in the background and although there’s still no formal repayment schedule, making small, steady repayments can really help keep the overall interest cost down.

It’s worth jumping into myIR to check your remaining balance, interest status, and key dates.  If you’re one of the businesses still within your interest-free window, planning ahead now can help you take full advantage of it before it expires.

With operating costs unlikely to ease in 2026, building SBCS repayments into your cash-flow plan early can prevent pressure later in the year and a simple repayment strategy can help keep things predictable and protect your working capital.

And of course, if you’d like support reviewing your loan or setting up a repayment plan that suits your business, we’re always here to help.

As we settle back into work after the holiday break, here is a look back on how our team rounded off 2025.

In December, our team enjoyed a well-deserved Christmas beach day on a beautifully sunny day. It was a great opportunity to step away from our desks, soak up some sun, and enjoy some fresh air.

Our day at Long Bay included kayaking, some friendly (and competitive) beach games, with plenty of good food and great company. Complete with a few servings of Mr. Whippy.

It was a lovely way to wind up 2025 together in a true kiwi-style beach day to mark the start of summer and leave us eager for the kick off again in the new year

The Government is introducing several changes to KiwiSaver over the next few years. Here’s a quick summary of what’s changing and when:

From 1 July 2025

Government contributions are halved to 25 cents per $1 contributed.

Maximum annual government contribution drops to $260.72.

16–17 year olds become eligible for government contributions.

People earning over $180,000 a year will no longer qualify.

There was no change to government contributions for the year ending 30 June 2025. These were paid in July and August 2025 at the current government contribution rate

From 1 April 2026

Default employee and employer contribution rates increase from 3% to 3.5%.

Members can apply for a temporary rate reduction to remain at 3%.

Employers must contribute to KiwiSaver for eligible 16–17 year old employees who contribute from their wages.

From 1 April 2028

Default KiwiSaver contribution rates increase again to 4% for both employees and employers.

In the Employment Court, significant cases have found that:

• Requiring salaried employees to be on-call without reasonable compensation amounted to an unlawful availability provision. Where employees are required to be on-call employment agreements need to include an express recognition that the salary takes into account availability provisions
• deductions from pay which reduced the “in-the-hand” pay to less than the minimum wage were unlawful.
• a 2-month period to allow the employee a reasonable amount of time to search for new employment after the Christmas/New Year holiday season was not a lawful reason for a fixed term employment agreement.
• In a case involving a union member taking legal action against her union, there could be damages for a breach of the duty of good faith.

Changes to Employment Law legislation were:

• The Crimes Act 1961 was amended to introduce the new crime of theft by an employer. This change criminalises the intentional failure of an employer to pay an employee's wages or other monetary entitlements without a reasonable excuse. This development elevates wage theft from a purely civil matter to a criminal act, exposing employers, and potentially directors or managers, to significant penalties including imprisonment and fines.
• Changes to the Employee Relations Act 2000 clarified an employer’s obligations to retain a copy of an employee’s employment agreement to ensure that an employee doesn’t hold the only copy.
• The Equal Pay Act 1972 was amended with substantial changes to the pay equity claim framework. The changes focused primarily on increasing the threshold for making a pay equity claim. The updated threshold requires the work to be performed by a workforce that is at least 70% female and this must be met for at least 10 consecutive years.
• Changes to the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 provide that any week where a preterm baby payment is made must not be offset or deducted from other parental leave entitlements.
• The ability for employers to make deductions from pay for partial strikes was reinstated with amendments to the Employment Relations Act 2000.
• Pay transparency was given a major uplift with changes to the Employment Relations Act 2000, to allow employees to talk freely about what they are paid without repercussions from their employer.

Now for the boring stuff. These are the most common deadlines for small/medium employers (monthly PAYE) and GST filers. Actual dates can vary by filing frequency and balance date — check myIR or contact us if unsure.

5 Feb

• Employer deductions payment due for 16 to 31 January for large employers.

9 Feb

• Your FBT income year return and payment are due if you have a March balance date and no extension of time.
• End-of-year student loan repayments are due. If you have an amount to pay, you'll have received a letter or text message from us.
• End-of-year income tax and Working for Families bills are due, unless your tax agent has an extension of time to file your income tax return.

20 Feb

• Employer deductions payment due for 1 to 15 February for large employers.
• Employer deductions payment due for January for small to medium employers.

2 Mar

• Your GST return and payment is due for the taxable period ending 31 January.
• AIM instalments are due if you have a March balance date.
• Provisional tax payments are due if you have a March balance date and use the ratio option.

5 Mar

• Employer deductions payment due for 16 to 28 February for large employers.

20 Mar

• Employer deductions payment due for February for small to medium employers.
• Employer deductions payment due for 1 to 15 March for large employers.

30 Mar

• Your GST return and payment is due for the taxable period ending February.

31 Mar

• Final date for ratio option provisional tax applications.

Make sure to plan for your tax obligations in your monthly cash flow forecasting. Reach out to your Walker Wayland Accountant if you need to review your forecast and look at options.

For the full list of key dates click on the button below.

IRD are presently reviewing the treatment of overdrawn shareholder loans. IRD is concerned that the current tax system ‘provides an unintended tax advantage when companies lend funds to shareholders, compared with paying taxable dividends’. Note that the NZ regime is an outlier in respect of not presently having rules in place to deal with this issue.  

The new rules, if enacted, will only apply to shareholder loans drawn after 4 December 2025, being the date that the initial consultation document was released.

Firstly, IRD are proposing to treat overdrawn shareholder loans as dividends if the loan is not repaid within a set period of time (currently defined as two successive balance dates). The loan period before repayment is due will vary between 12 and 24 months depending on when the loan was first taken out. If the overdrawn loan balance is less than $50,000 this rule will not apply.

Secondly, when a company is removed from the Companies Register any outstanding overdrawn shareholder loan will be treated as income at that time (if not already treated as a dividend by the above proposal).

There will be integrity measures to deal with any attempted circumvention of the rules, for example through temporary repayments or loans to associated parties.

Please contact us for more information on the above or if you have any questions relating to your shareholder loan.

P O Box 2175 Auckland 1140

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