Expenses No.1 pain for self-employed

Thirty percent of contractors, freelancers and the self-employed say keeping on top of expenses, and knowing what they can claim, is the most disliked task of their financial admin.

Tax agent Hnry recently surveyed self-employed Kiwis on a range of financial issues. Hnry is also behind the viral @thelostreceipt Instagram campaign, which recently documented the woes of a freelancer who lost a vital receipt and searched the length of New Zealand to find it, in time to file his tax return.

James Fuller, Hnry CEO, says this time of year – tax season – can be particularly stressful as the 7th of July tax return filing deadline approaches.

“A lot of contractors and freelancers will spend their free time rummaging around down the back of the sofa or thumbing through that stack of old mail that sits in the kitchen, trying to find the receipts they need for their tax return. It’s crazy how much time and effort we spend trying to hunt down these little bits of paper.

“People have really engaged with our Instagram campaign, offering to help and find the missing receipt – they’ve offered their own rewards and even claimed to have found the receipt. We wanted to inject a bit of fun into what can be a busy and stressful time of year while highlighting an important issue – financial admin can be tricky to get right,” says Fuller.

It’s estimated that for at least ten percent of the New Zealand population, their main source of income is from being self-employed, freelancing or contracting. This number is growing every day as more Kiwis earn independently. James Fuller says their research found these people spend, on average, $767 each year on various tools and services to help with financial admin, not to mention all the time they spend doing it themselves.

“The truth is, things can be a lot easier, and we developed Hnry so they can take back their lives. Instead of waiting until the end of the year to find out what you can and can’t claim you can do it straight away through our app; we pay and file all your taxes for you, avoiding the ‘end of financial year’ grind, keeping you up to date and most importantly, avoiding massive tax bills,” says Fuller.