New Zealand briefings

Salons & barbers

Cafes & coffee shops

All owner-operated businesses

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-08-27

From April 2027 you only manage the risks that could hospitalise someone. That is a harder test, not an easier one

On 1 April 2027 a business with fewer than 20 workers stops having to manage every risk equally and manages its critical risks instead. Less paperwork, genuinely, and a real saving for anyone currently renting a folder full of it. The catch is the test underneath, because it is not the one most owners are using: it asks how badly someone would be hurt if something went wrong, not how likely the thing is to happen. Read it the usual way and you will drop the one risk you were meant to keep.

Salons & barbers · 2026-08-18

On Monday your stylists go on the residence red list. The chef next door got a pathway

From Monday 24 August, New Zealand's residence system sorts workers by occupation, and every core salon role landed on the red list: hairdresser, beauty therapist, massage therapist, and salon manager. The chef two doors down got an amber route to residence at $42.00 an hour. Your senior stylist got a door that opens at $52.50. If anyone on your team is planning to apply under the current rules, their form closes the same day the lists arrive.

Salons & barbers · 2026-08-11

The Holidays Act is finally gone. Your casual hours get dearer and your part-timers get cheaper

Five days ago the law that has caused more payroll headaches than anything else in New Zealand was replaced. If you run a salon or a barbershop with a mix of full-timers, Saturday part-timers and a junior you text when it gets busy, this changes what each of those hours costs you. Not yet, but the direction is now fixed and the arithmetic is worth knowing while you can still do something with it.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-08-03

Your card fees were cut twice. Nobody was required to tell you.

Two cuts to card fees have already happened, on 1 December 2025 and again on 1 May 2026. Together they are meant to take about $90 million a year off what New Zealand businesses pay to accept cards. Whether any of it reached your till depends entirely on how your merchant fees are priced, and nobody had to tell you either way. Here is how to find out, in about ten minutes, from statements you already have.

All owner-operated businesses · 2026-07-24

Buying kit this year? New Zealand now lets you write off 20% of it straight away

Good news for once, if you are buying equipment. New Zealand's Investment Boost lets you knock 20% off the cost of a new asset straight away, as a deduction in the year you buy it, on top of the normal depreciation. If a new espresso machine, work van, or gym fit-out was already on your list, this cuts your tax bill now. Here is how much it puts back, exactly what qualifies, and the one reason it is quietly better than it looks for the day you sell.

Cafes & coffee shops · 2026-07-17

New Zealand's minimum wage hits $23.95 on 1 April. The wage rise is the easy part

If you run a cafe in New Zealand, here is your number: the adult minimum wage rises to $23.95 an hour on 1 April 2026, up 45 cents, about 1.9%. That part is small and you saw it coming. The part that will actually catch your cash flow is a second change landing on the exact same day, your KiwiSaver bill, and it bites hardest on the teenagers a lot of cafes are built on. Here is what both do to your profit first, then to what the cafe is worth.