Today is the day. Your COIDA Return of Earnings deadline has arrived, and late submission attracts administrative penalties, mounting interest, and a Letter of Good Standing that stays frozen until your assessment is finalised and paid.
A Letter of Good Standing isn't a formality, it's often the single document standing between your business and its next contract. Government departments and large corporates won't even review a tender submission without a valid one, and existing clients will frequently withhold payment on invoices until you can produce an updated letter. That's an entirely avoidable cash flow crisis triggered by a paperwork deadline.
Miss the deadline and you're also looking at penalties of up to 10% of your assessment, on top of interest, both of which are non-deductible expenses that offer nothing in return.
Declare actual employee earnings for the period ending in February, and provide a realistic estimate for the year ahead. Regular salaries, overtime, bonuses and the cash value of fringe benefits all count. If your payroll runs through Xero or Sage, pulling this data should take minutes rather than hours, provided your payroll figures already reconcile against your annual financial statements.
Your COIDA assessment is calculated against your total labour costs and your industry's risk category, and it's a real cost of doing business whether you've priced for it or not. If you haven't built it into your hourly rates or project pricing, it's coming straight out of your margin instead. Going forward, estimate the following year's assessment during your annual budgeting process so it's never a surprise on deadline day again.
Submit today if you haven't already. Every day past the deadline adds penalties and interest.
Reconcile payroll data before declaring. Confirm your figures match your annual financial statements to avoid over or under-declaring.
Estimate next year's assessment now. Build it into your annual budget so this deadline never catches you unprepared again.
Price it into your rates. If this year's assessment rose, adjust your pricing to absorb it rather than letting it erode margin quietly.
You'll face penalties of up to 10% of your assessment plus accumulating interest, and your Letter of Good Standing will stay frozen until the outstanding return and payment are settled.
Yes, submit as soon as possible. The longer the delay, the larger the penalty and the longer your Letter of Good Standing stays frozen.
You still need to submit a return, generally a nil return, if you're registered with the Compensation Fund. Working directors count as employees under COIDA.
If today is your deadline, submit now, reconcile your numbers properly, and start budgeting for next year's assessment immediately. For related compliance guidance, see our blog, and confirm current requirements.
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