01 Jul Audit Time
Audit time
This is the time of year that we usually start to spam our tax clients about audit insurance. There is good reason we do this, and more so lately. In 2025, the IRD was getting a staggering $11.81 return on investment for audit activity. That was up on $9.50 the year prior – which was already crazy high – not that long ago it was a $6 ROI. Their current target is to get back $10 for every dollar spent. You can read more about what they are up to on the investigation front here.
Part of what makes them more successful now is the broader toolset that they have access to, and the much wider range of data feeding into them. While the rest of the public sector faces cuts, more funding is being put into IRD investigations. So we expect this activity to remain elevated.
This is part of the reason that we’ve moved to a new insurer to cover audit risk. While the level of cover provided by the previous insurer was very good, it wasn’t always cheap, meaning that some people who might have benefited from the cover didn’t take it up. We’ve now shifted to a new provider that operate on a slightly different basis. The cover is WAY cheaper, but it’s blanket cover – meaning everyone attached to our tax agency is covered for the work that we undertake. This means you don’t get a separate invoice for audit insurance; it will be a surcharge to our fees going forward.
At a time when it seems like everything is getting more expensive, it’s nice to see something going down in price. If you want to know more about this new policy, get in contact.
Price of energy
You’ve probably grown tired of hearing about the various conflicts going on around the world. It seems that they have been relegated to the middle section of the 6pm news, which suggests there is a bit of fatigue around the same bad news each day.
As much as world events still seem to be an absolute mess, mercifully, fuel prices seem to be coming down a bit. For businesses that are heavy fuel users, this is a big deal and can be the difference between survival or business failure. However, we think it would be easier to predict the World Cup winner than read the tea leaves about how geopolitical negotiations will unfold. Or put more simply, while we hope fuel prices will continue downward, it’s far from certain that they will.
Knowing that there is a risk of something happening is only of value if you do something about it. If you’re dependent on fuel prices, what can you do to protect yourself from fluctuations in fuel prices?
