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Family Trusts and Estate Planning

Change to Trustee Tax rate – is a Trust still useful?

The Government announced a proposed increase of the trustee tax rate (from 33% to 39%) in Budget 2023. This change, due to take effect from 1 April 2024, would set the rate at which trustee income is taxed at the same as the top individual tax rate. The intention here is to prevent taxpayers from

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Conveyancing

Know your obligations before signing up to a conditional house purchase

An example of the critical importance of purchasers understanding their obligations under conditional sale and purchase agreements is the Strack v Grey case. (Strack v Grey [2019] NZCA 432) What Happened Essentially Grey, an Otago businessman who owned a property in Mosgiel, wanted to buy the Strack’s property in Dunedin. Grey wanted to put in

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Conveyancing

Fencing – Get it Right

You can change friends but not neighbours … or so the saying goes. So it’s all the more important to try to maintain friendly – or at least cordial relations with your neighbours. When it comes to boundary fences, these relationships can come under additional pressure, so it’s important to do things well and to

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Commercial

Incorporated Societies Act changes in the air – do you need to do anything?

Incorporated societies law needed a face lift. The statute which largely regulates the affairs of the many thousands of incorporated societies in New Zealand was passed in 1908! Since that time the whole sector has grown considerably. These days incorporated societies can be significant operations. The Incorporated Societies Act 1908 simply doesn’t fit well with

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Articles

Why we need to ask you for information

Information Requirements New Zealand has passed a law called the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (“the AML/CFT law” for short). The purpose of the law reflects New Zealand’s commitment to the international initiative to counter the impact that criminal activity has on people and economies within the global community. Recent changes

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Articles

New Enduring Power of Attorney Forms

New Enduring Powers of Attorney Forms There have been recent legislative changes (to the Protection of Personal and Property Rights Act 1988) which will affect those seeking to make Enduring Powers of Attorney. Some of these changes include: (a) less restrictive requirements for mutual appointments (b)  the adoption of standard explanations to explain the effects

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Articles

Your Digital Legacy

In this increasingly “digital” world  , have you ever stopped and thought about what might happen upon your death in terms of what becomes of your “digital” information. More and more of us are conducting our lives in cyberspace and therefore much of the information about us, our activities, interests, etc are contained in various

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Articles

Too Busy To Ask For Business!

Those of us who are flat out doing what we do best often find ourselves in the position whereby we are “too busy” doing what we do to realise that we all need a steady flow of new work and/or repeat work. Have you ever thought that simply by going about your work and dealing

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Articles

Welcome we have upgraded our Blog

Welcome to the upgraded PGL blog. We want this to be a forum for some positive observations and comments rather than too much of the grizzles and gripes. What are the issues that really concern you? What tends to get you more excited than anything else? (be polite…). Let me start the ball rolling. One

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