AN UPDATE FROM TAXLAB ON COVID-19 (CORONAVIRUS)

Last updated 22 March 2020

Taxlab Service Availability Is Business as Usual

We activated our Business Continuity Plan as a precautionary measure on 16 March 2020 and tested closure of our Auckland office and London working hub. We do not anticipate any issues in service uptime or support availability. To help you understand and gain assurance of our business continuity, please see further information below:

We provide software-as-a-service and continue our product development and delivery of service through the use of cloud applications.
We have confirmed with external service providers to ensure they too, can continue to deliver to us.
We have full-time remote workers, and as such we are highly practised using remote collaboration and communication tools to ensure business as usual.
We do not expect any technology bottlenecks should we need all our staff to work remotely.
Our team will continue to be contactable via our Support Helpdesk, either via phone (0800 00 1035) or email (support@taxlab.online) and we continue to be committed to delivering high quality customer service.
As March is traditionally a more intensive time of year for tax and finance professionals who navigate pending return filing dates and financial year end, we do anticipate our team to be very busy supporting your software queries. We thank you in advance for your understanding and patience and note that we will endeavour to respond as soon as possible.

We do not anticipate any significant changes to our business continuity plan or COVID-19 policies but as we navigate this dynamic landscape, any updates are likely to be made on this webpage.

Safety of Our People

We have implemented COVID-19 policies across our staff in NZ, Australia and UK. This includes:

Halting travel (domestic or international)
Declining face to face business meetings or events in favor of virtual meetings
Reinforcing good hygiene habits
Temporary closure of our Auckland office and London working hub to support Government reccomendations to work from home.
Encouraging all staff to take appropriate precautions in line with government recommendations as we continue to put the safety of each other first.

While we serve the needs of our customers, we will continue to work both at our offices and remotely at home in line with government mandates and advice.

Take Care

Our team remains committed to your success. We are well placed to continue business as usual and maintain the software service and support you expect from us.

We wish you, your family and your colleagues, good health and diligent hygiene as we look to overcome uncertain times.

Taxlab to enter UK market

Tax compliance software leader to enter UK market Taxlab starts UK activity by hiring a team of world-class talent.

LONDON, UK – Leading tax compliance software provider, Taxlab, announced today its planned entry into the UK market, bringing its revolutionary product to UK customers for the first time.

The New Zealand-based group plan to launch UK tax compliance content on its global platform in 2020 having recruited a team of world class specialists to support the rapid development of its UK business.

George Savage - Taxlab Product Owner UK — George Savage

Jon Pomroy - Taxlab Lead Software Developer — Jon
Pomroy

The UK team includes George Savage, who most recently spent ten years at Thomson Reuters leading the company’s global tax compliance product. Prior to that, Savage spent over 15 years at Big Four accountancy firms. Jon Pomroy has also joined to lead UK development operations. Pomroy, who began his career in tax technology in 1996 brings over 20 years of experience of working in and leading global tax platforms.

“We are very excited to be joining Taxlab at a time when clients are seeking more from tax technology. I’m looking forward to delivering high quality, cloud-based tax compliance and reporting products on Taxlab’s cutting edge platform.” – George Savage, Taxlab UK

Pomroy and Savage are reuniting with a former colleague, Mike Roberts who heads up commercial operations for the Taxlab group and they will be supported by a full design, development and commercial team in the UK in addition to the global development team.

“We couldn’t be more happy to welcome Jon, George and the team into Taxlab and to be bringing our unique tax solutions to the UK. The client response to Taxlab’s approach to software in Australia and New Zealand has been overwhelmingly positive and we are certain we can bring the same benefits to the UK market.” – Mike Roberts, Taxlab Commercial Operations Leader

Taxlab is unique in its ability to provide a single, cloud-based approach to collate, process and complete tax compliance for every taxpayer, regardless of their entity type, size or complexity. This is a true differentiator for tax compliance software, and comes at a time when many accounting firms and tax specialists are seeking to modernise and rationalise their tax compliance systems.

Taxlab was founded in 2009 by Allen Knight and Karl Farrand, who previously led Deloitte New Zealand’s in-house tax technology team. Their client base includes Big Four, Mid-Tier and Regional accounting firms, NZX and ASX listed multinational corporates including banks, life insurers, utility companies and central and local government organisations.

For more information or to arrange media interviews, please contact Mike Roberts at mike@taxlab.online or on +44 2036 707708.

How to correctly disclose tax pooling transactions in your IR4J Imputation Return

We are often asked why we default tax pooling transactions to the Other disclosure boxes on the IR4J imputation return. The answer is simple, this is where Inland Revenue specify you put them. We have directly confirmed this with them:

“Deposits and transfers into a tax pooling account that create an imputation account credit should be recorded in keypoint 41E, while refunds and transfers out of a tax pooling account that create an imputation account debit should be recorded in keypoint 42D.”
Inland Revenue, 21 August 2015

Why do Inland Revenue want it this way rather than including pooling in the tax payments disclosure box… who knows. We suspect they would prefer to have a separate box for tax pooling on the IR4J but this isn’t an option in the current system.

Taxlab to enter Australian market

Industry heavyweight Mike Roberts named to lead Taxlab Australia

MELBOURNE, Australia – Leading provider, Taxlab, announced today its planned entry into the Australian market, which will bring its revolutionary tax compliance software to Australian customers for the first time.

The New Zealand-based company will enter the Australian tax compliance software market in 2019 under the leadership of Mike Roberts, a 20-year veteran of the global tax technology market.

Roberts spent five years at Thomson Reuters leading the company’s European, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) tax and accounting business. Most recently, he led EY’s Oceania Tax Technology advisory team providing direct experience of the trans-Tasman market.

“I’m hugely excited to be joining Taxlab at this major milestone in the business’s life. The market is demanding high quality, proven cloud-based tax reporting products and I’m very much looking forward to delivering on those needs with Taxlab’s revolutionary platform.” – Mike Roberts, Taxlab Australia

Taxlab is unique in its ability to provide a single, cloud-based approach to collate, process and complete tax compliance for every taxpayer, regardless of their entity type, size or complexity. This is a true differentiator for tax compliance software, and comes at a time when the Australian market is seeking to modernise its tax compliance systems.

“Welcoming Mike into Taxlab is an exciting time for us as we bring our unique tax solutions to the Australian market. With an outstanding track record of building and leading international tax technology businesses, Mike further strengthens our executive leadership capability.” – Allen Knight, Taxlab Managing Director.

Taxlab is New Zealand’s leading solution for tax compliance and reporting. Founded in 2009 by Allen Knight and Karl Farrand, who previously led Deloitte’s in-house tax technology team, Taxlab’s current client base includes more than 150 of New Zealand’s largest corporates and firms, including three of the “big four” accounting firms.

For more information or to arrange media interviews, please contact Mike Roberts at mike@taxlab.online or on +61 499 000 264.

The death of Microsoft Silverlight

Microsoft Silverlight is an application framework for running internet applications (similar to Adobe Flash).

We have used Silverlight to run our FBT software since 2009.

Silverlight is nearing the end of it’s useful life and you may already be experiencing issues with it. Google Chrome blocked Silverlight in September 2015 and Firefox did the same in March 2017. It is not supported in Microsoft Edge and Microsoft will end all support by October 2021.