William Buck welcomes the government’s ‘Investment Boost’ initiative, announced within the 2025 Budget, as a constructive measure for encouraging business investment. However, we believe the Budget could have offered a wider range of support to assist New Zealand’s Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) more comprehensively.
The new ‘Investment Boost’ permits businesses a 20% upfront deduction for new eligible assets, supplementing normal depreciation.
Jayesh Kumar, Head of Tax at William Buck NZ, said that while this initiative and other budget measures would help small businesses, more was needed.
“’The ‘Investment Boost’ is a positive development. It will offer tangible support for New Zealand businesses, particularly SMEs, looking to invest in their capital base and enhance productivity, which is certainly valuable,” said Mr Kumar.
“While this specific initiative is certainly beneficial, we believe the Budget overlooked opportunities for more impactful direct assistance to SMEs and meaningful regulatory simplification. There was scope, we believe, to do more to ease the day-to-day pressures on these businesses and foster greater resilience across the small and medium-sized business sector.”
Along with the ‘Investment Boost’ initiative, SMEs did benefit from other measures in the budget, such as the $150 million extension for the Apprenticeship Boost scheme, the new $5,000 digital adoption grants for qualifying businesses, access to a $200 million Regional Development Fund for innovation projects and $50 million for a new programme to help small businesses improve energy efficiency.
Mr Kumar emphasised that while they offer valuable short-term assistance, the creation of a truly conducive and sustainable environment for long-term business growth requires ongoing and more fundamental policy attention.
“For SMEs to truly flourish and drive sustainable national growth, they require a consistently supportive environment that looks beyond individual incentives to address their broader operational needs and growth aspirations. We hope future fiscal measures will continue to build towards creating these optimal conditions for our vital SME community,’ added Mr Kumar.
