Greetings once again from Auckland!
The Gordons, Ornejas, Richards, Trevarthens, Wongs, Phil Baldwin and I were able to attend the Pastors' Conference and Celebration Weekend at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast February 14-16. Eight from Fiji also attended, making for a sizeable delegation from our part of the world. Dennis will be reporting on the meetings in a member letter which should be sent out in the next week or so.
Fiji Trip: Isei & Va Colati are about to begin a visiting trip to some of the northern Islands of Fiji, including Labasa, Taveuni and Lekutu. They leave tomorrow for just over two weeks, returning on Sunday 21st. They appreciate our prayers for a safe and successful tour.
Receipts: In early April I will be sending out the annual receipts for your use in claiming donation tax credits from the IRD.
The IRD advises that they have made recent improvements to their secure online service (called "myIR"), which means that you don't have to complete a paper form this year if you upload an electronic receipt to your myIR account.
I am able to send receipts by post or by email, so I'm thinking now that some of you may wish to begin receiving them by email. This will save postage costs for GCI, as well as enabling you to claim the refunds online, and IRD says you will receive your refund much sooner if you do it this way. In fact, in future if you want to, you can upload donation receipts to your "myIR" account as you get them, at any time throughout the year, and the IRD will automatically calculate the credit and pay it into your bank account at the end of the tax year.
You can find more information on ird.govt.nz/donations. If you or any members in your areas would like their receipts emailed rather than posted in future, please let me know and I will be happy to do so.
Warm regards to all,
Rex