All owner-operated businesses in New Zealand

2026-09-01

The fire levy on your business insurance fell by a third on 1 July. Some renewals still went up

Find your last insurance renewal and look for the line called the Fire and Emergency levy. On 1 July the rate on that line dropped by about a third for commercial cover, from 11.95 cents to 7.76 cents for every $100 you insure. That is roughly $42 a year back for every $100,000 of cover, before GST. But the levy did not only get cheaper. It also changed what it is charged on, and for some owners that second change eats the first. This is a fifteen minute check on your renewal paperwork, worth a few hundred dollars a year for a single site and more than a thousand if you run several.

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.

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.