Rainey Collins Lawyers

Expectations 2010

By Ronette Druskovich, Thursday, 11 March, 2010, Employment, Property

After a quick review of the media, everything we are hearing about 2010 is much more positive than it has been for the last few years.  Here are a few predictions together with actions you may need to take:

Inflation:

• Should you be looking to fix your mortgage rate in the next 6 months?
• If your assets are likely to appreciate with inflation, should you look to move them into another entity now, before you need to gift or accrue inter-entity debt at a higher value?

Employment:

• 80% of employees doe not have written employment contracts as required by law (NBR 2009).
• If you are an employer, are your employment contracts in order?
• Employer or new employee – do you understand your rights relating to trial periods?
• Employee – is your current or new employment agreement adequate?

Likely changes to the tax laws:

• There will likely be changes to the tax laws which may impact on busines owners and property investors.
• Is your business model sufficiently robust to deal with any changes?
• Property investors, is it time to consider off-loading some properties and looking at a more diverse investment strategy?
• GST – indications are that this will rise to 15%.

We don’t have a crystal ball and we can’t provide any promises about the future, but we do know that the predictions are more positive than we’ve seen in the last few years and that there’s no time like the present to take action.

Call us Toll Free on 0800 733 424