Auckland Craft Collective: April Book Keeping...

So, last night was the second of our evenings — Book Keeping! We had special guest speakers; Vaj from IRD and Alida from Jelly Bones who is in her final year of an Accounting degree and runs her own successful craft business. After that we should all be experts, right? It was an awesome evening (by awesome, I mean our minds were like sponges and were painfully full at the end of it...) with a full house — poor Kylie had to sit on the floor! The best part for me was the question and answer session with Alida — so many good questions and discussion points were raised.

I have compiled a list of our Top Ten tips below — it was really hard to do as there was so much information that you really did have to be there for this one! Also a few pictures of the night — I tried to get a photo of the plate that was full of the shortbread I made, but it was all gone so fast! It really was yummy....

Keep all your receipts, even if it's only a few $ but it all ads up and is good practice to get into
Your craft changes from a hobby to a business when your intention changes, usually when you start to sell your goods
The tax year is from 1st April to 31st March
An IR3 is what you need to fill out to begin your tax return
Your IR3 is due by the 7th of July
You only have to be GST registered if your turnover is more than $60k but you can be GST registered if your turnover is less if you want — there are pros and cons for doing this
Organise bank statements, bills, receipts etc. as you go, this makes it easier to enter your accounts each month
Don't forget about ACC levies.... check out their website for calculators etc.
Your salary, wages etc. combined with your business income is your total taxable income for the year and needs to be declared
If in doubt, call the IRD or make an appointment with an accountant!