Skateboarding is a really fun activity, but it is also very challenging. It all started while I was cleaning up my garage earlier this year. I found my old skateboard from back in my high school days. With all the good old “Sk8er Boi” memory in mind, I took it to the skate park to […]

Over this last year, we have had many due diligence engagements (both purchase and sale side) and this month alone have completed six due diligence engagements, so as this is on my mind, it becomes the default technical topic this month. Each due diligence engagement is unique and there is no one approach, however the […]

Ten years ago, we could not foresee, even in our wildest dreams, that one ACT would so fundamentally impact the Finance industry and later, other professional services. The Act I refer to, is the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML & CFT Act, hereafter the ACT). Due to this ACT, NZ […]

Embracing new technologies that make life easier should be a no brainer, for example, being paperless in the digital age should be simple right? However, as the move from paper to digital records has evolved, a twilight zone has emerged where some records are paper based and the other half are scattered about in cyber […]

Thanks for all the great feedback and conversations following last month’s article. In that article I promised to cover recent developments in the innovation funding landscape. If we assume three things: The New Zealand early stage company/start-up environment has not delivered enough sustainable companies that are growing and have global commercial potential, The upcoming change […]

Eduardo Porter wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Loss of Dynamism is impeding Growth”. The premise of the article was that New Zealand, like others in the OECD, have not generated enough early stage companies and have not done enough to ensure they become mature or revenue generating companies. The article quotes […]

Audit Shield is an insurance which provides for the payment of professional fees incurred in the event you are selected for an audit, enquiry, investigation or review instigated by Inland Revenue (IR). The cost of being properly represented can be quite considerable depending on the circumstances. Even a simple enquiry can require hours of work. […]

Imagine this… [box] You own a successful business in a great location, and you have plans for the future, and/or you are a landlord with a building and/or land that you bought for the longer term for you and your family. [/box]   Then out of the blue, the Public Works Act (PWA) is forced […]

I recently attended and presented at the 2017 Company Valuations Conference in Auckland. Other presenters consisted of valuation experts with their own consulting firms. Plus law firms, business broking firms, accounting firms, Intellectual Property experts and even a speaker on the psychology of cognitive bias. During the conference I connected with some impressive minds. They […]

Part of my role in advising clients, is attempting to optimise their structures for taxation purposes – less tax paid for a profitable business should naturally correlate to more cash in the pocket (one would hope!). The following issues are some common themes in this regard: Initial Structuring versus Restructuring Getting good structuring advice at […]