David Ellis, the biggest spender at New Zealand’s premiere Karaka horse sales this year, says the tax department is stifling new investment in the bloodstock industry with its interpretation of depreciation rules. The value of yearling sales at Karaka in South Auckland have fallen in each of the past six years, reaching $69.7 million last month, down from $111.2 million …

Lower quality and higher costs have been experienced as a result of outsourcing, 44 percent of public service workers say in the latest New Zealand Productivity Pulse from accounting firm Ernst & Young. The survey suggests the gap between productivity levels in the public sector compared to the private sector totals around $280 million a year. EY also found public …

Electricity companies are absorbing nearly twice as much new cost as they’re passing on to their customers as the retail market for power becomes increasingly competitive, the industry’s regulator, the Electricity Authority, says. Analysis from the EA says the costs facing a theoretical stand-alone retailer have risen faster than residential prices since September 2010, when the authority’s pro-competition agenda started …