Christchurch firm Kendons on the real pressure behind provisional tax, and what a more proactive approach looks like.
“It comes in waves. You can go a while without thinking much about it, then suddenly it’s all on for a month.”
That’s how Michael Laing, Director at Kendons, describes provisional tax. For a lot of firms, it will sound familiar.
Penny Ineson, TMNZ’s Head of South Island Relationships, sat down with Michael and Tanya Pollock, Accountant & Tax Support at Kendons. They talked about where the pressure comes from, what it takes from the team, and where Kendons sees room for change.
The situation: a workload that arrives all at once
Kendons is a chartered accounting and business advisory firm based in Christchurch. It works mainly with SME clients, and many of them have a March balance date.
So provisional tax doesn’t arrive at an even pace. Work builds quickly around key payment dates, with a burst of reviews, letters, client questions and follow-up. Smaller dates need less lead time. Larger ones need more preparation, more review and more communication across the firm.
Kendons already works with TMNZ to help clients pay tax in a way that suits their cashflow. For businesses with variable income, a standard provisional tax payment doesn’t always match what’s happening in the business today. More flexible ways to pay give the team another option when tax and cashflow don’t line up.
The challenge: the work around the payment
For Kendons, the hard part isn’t working out a tax payment. It’s everything around it.
The explaining. Many clients only think about provisional tax when a payment is due. People paying for the first time often find it hard to understand why they’re paying, how the amount was worked out and what it’s for.
“A lot of the pain is in the explaining.”
– Tanya Pollock, Accountant & Tax Support, Kendons
The mixed messages. It gets more confusing when what a client sees in myIR doesn’t match what their accountant has told them. For example, a payment may not show as due because last year’s return hasn’t been filed yet.
The clean-up after the deadline. A client can show as unpaid when their payment has actually gone to the wrong year or period. Interest and penalties may not show up until much later. That brings more client questions and more work to fix things.
The limits on time. The team can’t review every client in detail at every payment date. So it uses technology, processes and professional judgement to focus on clients with larger tax positions, changes in their situation, or signs that something needs attention. That works, but it can still leave the team reacting to problems after they happen instead of spotting them early.
“There’s definitely a need in the industry for some technology to reduce down the manual processes that we have to do after a tax date.”
– Kendons
The opportunity: from reactive to proactive
Kendons sees provisional tax as more than a compliance task. Done well, it helps clients manage cashflow, avoid penalties they don’t need to pay and make better decisions earlier.
For Michael, the next step is a more connected view of provisional tax. Right now, the team moves between Inland Revenue systems, practice software and internal records. With the right client information in one place, they could see who needs attention sooner, decide faster and spend less time on manual work.
“Something that pulls it all together would be very useful.”
– Kendons
The aim isn’t just to process provisional tax faster. It’s to make the process easier, so the team has more time to help clients understand their options and plan ahead.
What success looks like for Kendons:
- finding the clients who need support earlier
- less time checking information across systems
- clearer, more timely communication with clients
- helping clients manage payments around their cashflow
- fewer avoidable errors, interest and penalties
- more time for the advice clients value
“The future of provisional tax management is not only about accuracy. It is about creating the space for better, more proactive client service.”
– Michael Laing, Director, Kendons
The solution: what’s coming from TMNZ
Firms across New Zealand tell us the same things as Kendons. Provisional tax is too manual, needs too much chasing, and means checking too many systems to find a client’s real position.
That’s why we’ve built the new TMNZ platform. It brings provisional tax into one clear view across your whole practice, using a direct connection to Inland Revenue. It’s designed to:
- show every client’s provisional tax position on one screen
- show each client’s status at a glance: compliant, deadline coming up, or needs attention
- help your team spot compliance gaps early, while there’s still time to act
- cut the cross-checking between Inland Revenue, spreadsheets and practice systems
- work alongside your accounting and practice management software, which stays your source of truth
There’s no subscription or platform fee for your firm or your clients.
“So it’ll be exciting to use the platform to save on the manual entry, and that would allow me to add value back to the clients.”
– Kendons
See it for yourself
Provisional tax will always mean deadlines, decisions and client conversations. It doesn’t have to come with extra pressure.
Book a demo and we’ll walk you and your team through the new platform. We’ll show you how it fits the way your practice already works.