Companies Office October 2009 Newsletter

General

Review of Industrial & Provident Societies
In preparation for the introduction of the new registry IT-system Enterprise, the Registrar of Industrial and Provident Societies (“the Registrar”) is conducting a review of the Industrial and Provident Societies register.

Review of Industrial & Provident Societies

The new IT-system will be introduced in Mid 2010, starting with the Companies Office, and will subsequently be expanded to other registers, such as the Industrial and Provident Societies register. There are currently 299 societies registered under the Industrial & Provident Societies Act 1908 (“the Act”).

The main purpose of the review is to determine whether a society is still operating and to ask them to provide the Registrar with up-to-date addresses for the society. A letter has been issued to all Industrial & Provident Societies which were registered prior to 2009 in regards to this.

Under the Act a society has an obligation to file an annual financial statement which is known as an annual return, and this must be sent to the Registrar each year for filing. Further information on a society’s obligations is available on our website:
www.companies.govt.nz/cms/other-registered-entities/industrial-and-provident-societies

If you are a member of an Industrial & Provident society or were a member of a society which is no longer operating, then please contact the Registrar. We would like to know whether it still exists and if so, what its current addresses are. This can be done by emailing compliance@companies.govt.nz or by writing to the Registrar of Industrial and Provident Societies at:

Ministry of Economic Development
Northern Business Centre
Private Bag 92061,
Victoria Street West,
Auckland 1142.

New Zealand ranked top in the world for ease of starting a business
The World Bank Doing Business indicators for 2009 have been released and New Zealand is now ranked number one in the world for ease of Starting a Business.

The Starting a Business indicator assesses the procedures and costs associated with setting up a business. This great result has been attributed to the introduction of the Companies Office and Inland Revenue joint initiative which enables new companies to apply for an IRD Number and register for GST at the point of incorporation. Other contributing factors were the introduction of a lower corporate tax rate and insolvency law reforms.

To read more visit the Companies Office website.

Adjustment to the employee preferential claim figure under the Companies Act 1993 and the Insolvency Act 2006
The adjusted employee preferential threshold amount came into effect on 25 September 2009.

Insolvency law provides all creditors with some measure of equality in order to avoid destructive fights between creditors and wasteful races to courts to recuperate their debts.

Employees are one of the categories of creditors that have statutory preference so that wages and salary are paid before payments are made to unsecured creditors of an insolvent company.

The maximum amount employees can claim in an insolvency proceeding under the Companies Act 1993 and the Insolvency Act 2006 was previously set at $16,420. There is a statutory requirement to adjust this amount every three years based on a prescribed formula. The prescribed formula provides for the revised figure to reflect any overall percentage increase, over the relevant adjustment period, in average weekly earnings (total, private sector), calculated by reference to the last Quarterly Employment Survey published by Statistics New Zealand.

The new employee preferential claim figure has been adjusted to $18,700. This reflects the overall increase in average weekly earnings in the private sector of 13.9 per cent over the three-year period ending 30 June 2009.

Please see http://www.companies.govt.nz/cms/how-do-i/close-a-new-zealand-company/liquidation/how-does-liquidation-affect-you