Jeremy Tauri: Make staff, skills, debt a focus now

The IRD has announced a successful year of debt collections

So how was the year that was 2014 for your business?

As we kick into 2015, it might be useful to take stock of the year, to provide some extra momentum for your business.

The demand for labour is increasing and job vacancies were up by 8.4 per cent for the year ended December 2014, according to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment online jobs report.

The MBIE is forecasting another 50,680 jobs over 2015-2016. The Canterbury rebuild will be the main reason for growth in employment.

Skilled vacancies are most noticeable in areas such as construction and engineering, hospitality and tourism and education and training.

Small businesses with fewer than 20 staff employ 584,000, or about 30 per cent of the workforce -- there's also an additional 386,000 self-employed people who may be looking to grow their businesses and hire during these years. A key concern for many of them will be where to find skilled workers.

Businesses in New Zealand seem to be on a more solid footing these days: Insolvency statistics show a drop in receiverships, administrations and liquidations of 17 per cent over the past four years.

A notable trend was the decline in receivership appointments made by secured lenders, which has more than halved in the 2014 year, indicating secured lenders are also more comfortable with the business outlook and are seeking solutions to work through debt problems.

Although borrowing has been tight, lower interest rates have helped businesses get on top of cash flows, including keeping on top of IRD payments.

The IRD has announced a successful year of debt collections, with $752 million more being collected in the 2013/14 year than the year prior.

The IRD has been focusing resources on newer debt and implementing solutions available to taxpayers such as grace periods and instalment plans to stop penalties and interest piling up.

Eleven out of the 17 regions have seen a reduction in tax debt in the 2014 year and 565,000 cases were resolved during the year.

Whether you're looking to hire new staff or shake off some remaining debt, now is a great time to get sorted for 2015.

A bit of planning now will help you get a lot more out of the coming 11 months.

Jeremy Tauri is an associate at Plus Chartered Accountants.