Finance News

1. New Accounting System
2. Confirmation of Balances
3. Amalgamated Investment Fund
4. Ministers’ Mortgages
5. Assembly Assessment
6. Addresses on Invoices
7. Charities Bill

1. New Accounting System

We continue to make progress on correcting the niggling problems arising from the implementation of the new system. The most significant outstanding issue is the correction of the allocation of some of the cash receipts in November and December. Because of processing problems during this period cash was being received in the Assembly Office in advance of the charge appearing on a parish statement. An example would be a parish paying its national services levy early in the month by direct credit. Because there was no invoice to allocate the receipt to it has been held as unallocated cash. We are now working our way though the statements containing unallocated cash and correctly allocating it to invoices. The effect is to reduce the number of unmatched items on the statement. This work is likely to flow into next month.

We believe we have now corrected the problems associated with the paying out of interest earned by investments in the AIF. By the time you receive this newsletter you should have received interest that was due for payment to you by standing instruction. However our records in this area in the old system were not as good as they could have been so an instruction may not have been carried into the new system. If you had an instruction in place and have not received your payment then you should contact this office and we will update our records.

2. Confirmation of Balances

Progress has been slow on clearing queries. This has been due to the complex nature of some of the queries and time off work by the person dealing with this matter. We have been seeking some additional resources for this task and will have a further person assisting after Easter. This will speed up our handling of queries. We are looking for a further volunteer to help with this project.

We have now cleared 95 queries. This number only includes queries relating to account balances at 31 October.

3. Amalgamated Investment Fund

The rate of interest paid on deposits with the Amalgamated Investment Fund continues at 6.00% for the month of April.

4. Ministers’ Mortgages

The interest rate on ministers’ mortgages is 7.25% for April.

5. Assembly Assessment

To better reflect its purpose the single assessment has been renamed assembly assessment. The assembly assessment replaces the national services levy, parish assessment, seniority allowance levy and mission and ministry giving from 1 July. The assessment does not apply to co-operating ventures.

An estimate of the assessment for each parish has been prepared and will be despatched with supporting information and explanations after Easter. Please read this information carefully. Parishes that are co-operating ventures will receive separate information, as the basis of their charges will also change.

The Administration and Finance Policy Group has looked closely at the charges to ensure that in total charges for each presbytery are similar to the 2003/04 year. This objective has been achieved within an environment of a population drift northwards. Generally presbyteries in the south are paying slightly less than last year, those in the north slightly more. The allocation model for mission and ministry targets had not been changed to reflect the changing demographics of New Zealand. The Policy Group has not addressed anomalies within presbyteries but presbyteries have the power to make these adjustments themselves. The total charge to Presbyterian parishes has dropped very slightly reflecting a change to the calculation of the parish contribution to the Beneficiary Fund.

6. Addresses on Invoices

Last month I noted that we were having a problem with the system still using an old address for recurring invoices (invoices that the system automatically repeats each month such as NSL charges). We have manually corrected the addresses we know to have changed but have yet to solve the problem of how to make the system automatically pick up any changes. We have an idea of how we might correct the problem but have yet to test it.

7. Charities Bill

The Government has in the last few days tabled the Charities Bill in Parliament. The Bill sets up a Charities Commission and a process for the registration of charities by the Commission. For an organisation to have tax-free status it must be registered as a charity. A charity must also be registered if a person who is making a donation to the charity is to receive a tax deduction for their donation. The impact of the Bill upon the Church and parishes could be very significant. We are concerned that the Bill will increase significantly the administration cost of the parish and the workload of the treasurer.

The Inter Church Working Party on Taxation (ICWPT) has met to consider the impact of the Bill upon the churches of New Zealand. This body co-ordinated the responses of the churches to the taxation of charities proposal issued by the Government a little over two years ago. The ICWPT is preparing a draft submission on the Bill that can be adopted and/or modified by each denomination represented on the ICWPT as it sees fit.

The Council of Assembly will make a decision on how to best effect registration. This decision will have to wait until the final form of the Act is known as we hope our submissions will be successful in changing parts of the Bill. At this time no action need be taken by parishes or presbyteries in respect of the Bill. At a later date we may call upon parishes to support the Church’s submission to the Select Committee.

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Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand