Are you the sort of person who likes to do their own research before making a choice? Perhaps time is a concern for you and you need to put something in place quickly? Or maybe you have a straightforward issue that doesn’t require a personal interview? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then the new tools and resources section on our website is perfect for you. You see, this section includes a number of DIY options that you can use to supplement the personalised expert advice available from Michael. In this article we provide an overview of what’s available.

Work it out

Savings calculator: use this tool to work out a personalised savings plan. The calculator gives you a range of variable options and the results are printable so that you can easily compare different scenarios. What’s more, the results are also presented in a graph format giving you a very visual and easily understood presentation of just how your savings can grow.

Mortgage repayment: this tool is useful if you are thinking about making changes to your mortgage. It shows you the impact of interest rate changes and also demonstrates how you can pay off your mortgage more quickly through extra repayments. Once again, results are printable and are also presented in a colourful graph format.

Budget planner: with Christmas just around the corner, this tool will help you create a comprehensive, manageable budget on a weekly, monthly or annual basis.

Fill it in

This part includes a number of tools and resources that will help you work out your financial goals and what’s important to you. Have a look at the financial view questionnaire and the ANZ KiwiSaver risk profile questionnaire to help you work out your priorities.

Do it yourself online

If you have a straightforward request or you already know what you need, then you can complete an application online using the resources in this section.

If, for example, drawing up a will has been on your to-do list for some time but you just haven’t got round to it, then use the easy eWills tool to set one up today. Or maybe you want to quickly organise some life insurance and have no special circumstances or requests. No problem – just use the life insurance tool for a comprehensive and competitive quote.

DIY options – flexibility and choice

Now, none of these tools and resources are a substitute for a personal chat with Michael. Our aim here is to give you more flexibility and choice and to make it easier for you to get the help and support you need. If you’d rather have a discussion before making any decisions, then Michael is always available.

However, if you like to do things for yourself or you want to carry out some research prior to an interview, then the resources and tools available on the website will be invaluable.

If you want to do it yourself now, then click here or get in touch to arrange an appointment.

Are you in arrears with your tax? Perhaps you are having trouble clearing your tax debt or are subject to a tax investigation or audit by IRD? Delays and problems in resolving your tax issues can result in substantial penalties, an increased tax risk or criminal conviction and even bankruptcy or liquidation. And it’s also a very stressful and worrying time. It’s important, therefore, that you have expert help and advice to guide you through the process. Here at AccountabilityNet, we specialise in providing professional tax negotiation and settlement services to both individuals and businesses. We have the expert knowledge to get you through. What’s more, we understand how difficult and anxious a process it can be and so we also offer an empathetic, sensitive service. Let’s find out how AccountabilityNet can support you.

Tax problems

Many individuals and companies find themselves in difficulties in keeping up with their taxes. Sometimes these are one-off situations as a result of events beyond your control. It could be as a result of serious illness, or perhaps following a divorce or separation. Maybe cash flow is an issue in your business and you’re unable to obtain finance to cover your tax debt.

Whatever the causes may be, we can negotiate on your behalf with IRD to achieve the best outcome.

Tax solutions

At AccountabilityNet we have the expertise, knowledge and necessary negotiating skills to find solutions to any tax debt problems. What’s more, our detailed knowledge of complex tax legislation and case law is second to none, which means we can guide and support you in what is a highly technical area.

In short, we can turn around desperate situations and can help you avoid bankruptcy, liquidation or serious penalties. Our debt negotiation service has seen many clients successfully agree to instalment arrangements or write-offs with IRD. And we have also been proactive in providing advice and support on tax loans and IRD submissions as well as tax challenges and appeals.

What’s more, we’ll make sure that the negotiations run as smoothly as possible so that the impact on your business as well as the stress and worry is minimised.

In addition, our fees are agreed upfront and are capped at $2,000 plus 10% which gives you that all important cost certainty.

Accountability Net success – case study

And just to illustrate how we can successfully deal with IRD, we recently negotiated on a client’s behalf for over $200,000 of tax arrears to be written off. Our detailed knowledge of case law as well as IRD’s own practice and negotiation statements meant that we were able to successfully argue that a write-off was appropriate.

And for this client, being freed up from a $200,000 debt was quite simply life changing. The client summed it up as follows:

The team at AccountabilityNet, in particular, Stephen far exceeded our expectations.  They took the time to understand how the tax debt was incurred.  They were also concerned with my family and the impact the tax debt had on them.  In particular, the effects on their schooling and health.  They also thoroughly considered our finances from various viewpoints. 

Expert help when you need it most

And so, if you need help with negotiating your tax debt or arrears, then get in touch with us here at AccountabilityNet. We have the perfect combination of expertise and a sensitive approach that will see you achieving a successful outcome. Get in touch today.

Written by Wymond Symes

It seems that the news has been full of stories recently about plastic pollution and the issues this is causing wildlife and the environment as a whole.

Here in New Zealand a big topic of the past month or so are pledges made by Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises to remove single use plastic bags from New World and Countdown supermarkets by the end of 2018. This has come about because of customer feedback and it is great to see kiwis putting pressure on retailers to rethink the way they source and provide bags for the merchandise they sell.

So, what will come of this pledge? What will replace the common petroleum-based single-use bags we have become so accustomed to in our supermarkets? This is the big question and one I hope Foodstuffs and Progressive Enterprises are considering carefully.

There have been numerous studies done on the environmental impacts of petroleum-based plastic bags compared to paper bag and/or compostable plastic bag alternatives, dating back many years. The most meaningful studies are those that consider impacts across the full life cycle of bags, from sourcing of the raw materials to manufacture, distribution, use and disposal. We call these “cradle to grave” life cycle impact assessment studies. And the results of those published may surprise you.

Across many impact categories, including energy intensity, global warming (greenhouse gas emissions, also referred to as the product’s carbon footprint), water use and eutrophication (nutrient loading of waterways), “conventional” plastic bags outperform others. But only when disposed of appropriately. What I mean by this is only when they are recycled at the end of their useful life. And herein lies the problem, especially for us here in New Zealand and for our friends in Australia. Infrastructure for soft plastic recycling – recycling of polyethylene-based plastic bags and plastic film – is lacking in most geographical areas and where services do exist they are not particularly convenient.

The Love NZ Soft Plastics Programme was launched in November 2015. Reliant on retailers providing recycling bins at their stores, and the collection services of REDcycle, the programme allows and encourages householders to divert all types of conventional oil-based plastic bags, including single use shopping bags, from landfill. Recovered bags are sent to RePlas in Melbourne where they are made into plastic products. The programme is currently looking for a processor in New Zealand.

The programme claims to have recycled 25 million plastic bags in 2016 (100 tonnes worth). This is 1.6% of the 1.6 billion plastic bags used last year in New Zealand.

A similar programme in Australia utilises 800 collection points nationwide and the services, once again, of REDcycle for collection and RePlas for processing. In addition, most supermarkets in Australia facilitate single-use shopping bag recycling by providing drop off bins and working with local service providers. A small number of councils in Australia accept plastic bags in their curb side recycling bins. Of the 3.9 billion plastic bags used in Australia each year about 3% are recycled through these schemes.

With this in mind, have the supermarket giants in New Zealand missed an opportunity here with their recent pledges? Would they have been better off to commit to keeping polyethylene bags and instead pledge to lobby councils around the country into providing curb side soft plastic recycling services and soft plastic recycling at recycling centres? The answer to this is not necessarily, and to examine it we need to understand how polyethylene bags “outperform” paper and compostable alternatives when they are recycled.

By recycling plastic into a second-generation product, we avoid the need to make that same product from virgin material. This is environmentally beneficial. Having said that, it is important to note that this “benefit” can be compromised if factors like where the recycling processes take place and the impacts of sending the used plastic there. For us in New Zealand much of our recycled material is sent to China (but maybe not for much longer, and that’s another story).

Add to this that, in the case of compostable plastic bags for instance, environmental comparisons with conventional plastic bags are not always done on optimised disposal options for the compostable bag, and you start to see it is not all black and white.

The performance of a compostable bag differs enormously depending on whether the bag is sent to landfill at the end of its life or is composted. In landfill compostable bags degrade over time to produce methane and carbon dioxide – both greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming, which is bad. However, many landfill sites in New Zealand and Australia now capture these gases and either flare them off or use them to generate biogas as a renewable energy source, which is good.

Composting these bags is generally good for the environment as nutrients are recycled, but the net benefit of this is also impacted by where and how the bag is composted. Not everyone does home composting and not all compostable bags compost in a home compost system. For bags not composted at home there is the need to transport them to a commercial composting facility, which adds “environmental burden”. Some commercial composting systems can be quite energy intensive, which adds further to the burden.

All this brings me back to my earlier point about the supermarkets needing to do thorough due diligence on alternatives to the status quo. There potentially is no clear winner when it comes to a bag for taking your groceries home in. In many ways it comes down to how the bags are disposed of and the convenience with which customers can apply the best disposal options.  It will be interesting to see where the supermarkets go with this, and I hope that in coming up with an alternative bag they work with councils and other regional authorities to ensure infrastructure is put in place to allow bag users to dispose of their bags in a way that is most environmentally sound.

Three top food mega trends were identified at the recent High Value Nutrition National Science Challenge Conference – can you guess what topped the list?

Catalyst’s Jane Lancaster attended the conference, held in Auckland in October this year, in her role as an independent director.

Over 200 delegates from the food and science community in New Zealand were asked to choose three food mega trends that will influence consumers in 2025.  Mega trends are long-term change that affect communities and economies permanently over a long period of time.

Stop and think, what would yours be?

The top three trends picked at the conference were:

1. Plant-based diets
2. Alternative proteins
3. Healthy ageing

How do these match yours? All three of these have implications for New Zealand food production, with our strong base of animal products.

Plant-based diets and alternative proteins are an interesting proposition for this country, with our background in animal production, particularly meat and dairy.

New Zealand doesn’t have the right climate to grow the necessary plant crops for a plant-based diet and the fruit and vegetable crops we do produce, while lovely, are not high in protein.

Synthetic meat and milk could pose tough questions for our traditional farming systems. The Impossible Burger, made by Impossible Foods, has been making headlines recently. According to the company’s website the pattie smells, sizzles, bleeds and tastes “gloriously meaty”. Except, it’s not meat, it’s made entirely from plants.

What the consumer wants, and the way food is produced, is changing. New Zealand food producers will need to think carefully about how position themselves, and their product, in the marketplace.

A new model of social enterprise, horticulture and food clusters is now being piloted on the West Coast of the South Island.

The region has faced challenges in recent years, with the downturn in dairy and coal prices, both important industries on the West Coast.

The West Coast Tai Poutini West Coast Regional Growth Study was commissioned in response to this situation, and the study was released in September last year. This was followed by the Tai Poutini West Coast Economic Development Action Plan 2017, a report identifying economic opportunities on the West Coast.

Catalyst is working alongside the Akina Foundation on the pilot, one of several opportunities identified by the report.

The Akina Foundation and social enterprise

The Foundation works to grow social enterprise across New Zealand. Social enterprise provides a means to improve social wellbeing, environmental sustainability, and economic performance.

Social enterprises are purpose-driven organisations that trade to deliver social and environmental impact. Social enterprises earn income from trading, but they commit to benefiting the community. For example, they might focus on providing employment opportunities for youth, improving the health of local people, or creating local infrastructure.

Globally, social enterprise and impact investment are creating hybrid markets and new forms of entrepreneurship, innovation, and capital.

Food is one area where social enterprise models have particularly flourished.

The West Coast pilot

Catalyst is working, with Akina Foundation, to pilot a model of social enterprise, horticulture and food clusters on the West Coast.

Catalyst provides the food and horticulture expertise, understanding food productions systems, supply chains and markets.

The growth study identified a specific opportunity to use a social enterprise approach to explore new prospects for horticulture, food and beverage in Buller and Grey regions. This action is focused on initially developing a food cluster, or collective, in Karamea to produce, add value, market and distribute locally grown food, while supporting local employment, tourism and environmental initiatives.

Catalyst’s Jane Lancaster says the project is just starting out, but Catalyst’s role is to bring an understanding of the horticulture sector and guide conversations about what may or may not work, in reality. “One of our core skill sets is to take a feasibility view – what actually is possible?”

“People have tried things involving food in the past on the West Coast, but I think it is worth exploring again. Three years ago, things like My Food Bag weren’t even on the scene. Things change quickly in food, there are new models of distribution and how people buy their food. The world has changed and it’s worth looking at again, differently,” she says.

Catalyst has helped many different organisations undertake feasibility studies. Our specialist knowledge of food systems and sustainability mean we are well placed to apply an independent, fresh set of eyes to any project. If you’d like to know more, please contact Jane.

Saturday 25th