How to Start a Business in New Zealand

Register a Company, Sole Trader Setup, Tax, Licences and Visas - Updated 2026

Most of what is written about starting a business in New Zealand is longer than the process actually is. A sole trader can be trading legally today, for nothing. A company costs $148.05 and takes a few days, and most of that wait is people signing forms.

It covers companies, sole traders, charitable trusts and incorporated societies, so it works whether you are building a software company, going out contracting, opening a café, setting up a charity, or registering a side project that started making money.

Free to use. No provider pays to be listed, and nobody can pay for placement.

Last verified: September 2026.

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NZ Government Support Directory (2026) - Every active grant, co-funding programme and R&D tax credit, with eligibility and direct application links.

Startup Funding in New Zealand - Every active investor and lender backing NZ startups, from pre-seed to growth.

NZ Startup Accelerators - Which accelerators put cash in, which take equity, and how much.

Free Startup Templates - Shareholders' agreements, cap tables and governance documents vetted for NZ founders.

Get a Startup Off the Ground in NZ - Practical, NZ-specific guidance on validating ideas, avoiding admin traps, and building traction before you spend a cent.

1. Sole Trader or Company: The One Decision That Matters

This is the only decision on this page that is expensive to reverse, so make it first. Everything else follows from it.

You can start as a sole trader and incorporate later. Plenty of people do and it costs very little. Unwinding a company back to a sole trader is more annoying than it sounds.

Partnerships. Nothing to register and no fee. The partnership gets its own IRD number and files its own return, an IR7, to allocate the profit or loss. Each partner then pays tax on their share through their personal return. The part people miss is liability: each partner is personally liable for debts the other partner takes on, including ones they did not agree to. Get a written partnership agreement before you start trading, not after something goes wrong.

Trusts are the right answer for some people, usually where family property or an existing professional practice is involved. If that is you, talk to an accountant before you register anything.

Official comparison sources

2. What It Actually Costs

Every fee below is from the official schedule and includes GST where it applies. No guide states these, which is why founders assume registration is expensive.

Sources: company fees from the Companies Office schedule of fees. Incorporated society fee from the Incorporated Societies Register. Charitable trust board from the Charitable Trusts Register. Visa fee from Immigration New Zealand.

3. Registering, Step by Step

Step 1. Check the name is free. ONECheck searches the companies register, domain names, trade marks and social media handles in one go. Free, takes a minute.

One thing it will not tell you: reserving a company name gives you no trade mark rights. Two businesses can hold near-identical names on different registers, and the one that finds out late is usually the one that has already printed the signage. A trade mark is the only thing that stops it. IPONZ charges $100 plus GST per class to apply, or $70 if you use only pre-approved terms, or $50 if you apply within three months of a search and preliminary advice report. Renewal is $200 plus GST per class every 10 years.

Step 2. Register, or don't.

Sole trader: there is nothing to register. You do not register yourself or your business with any government agency. Tell Inland Revenue you are working for yourself through myIR and the administrative side is finished.

Company: you need a RealMe login and a Companies Office online services account. Reserve the name, file the incorporation application, then every director and shareholder signs a consent form. The certificate is issued once those come back. You have 20 working days from name reservation to complete it. Almost all of that wait is people signing forms, so send the consent forms out the same day you file.

One requirement that catches offshore founders. A New Zealand company must have at least one director who lives in New Zealand, or who lives in Australia and is a current director of a company incorporated in Australia. That has to be a company registered in Australia in its own right, not an Australian branch registration of an overseas company. If you use the Australian option you have to supply that company's ACN when you register. An Australian resident who does not hold an Australian directorship does not satisfy this. It applies at incorporation regardless of where the shareholders are.

Step 3. Do your tax registrations inside the same form. The incorporation application lets you apply for an IRD number, register for GST and register as an employer at the same time. One form covers all four, and you receive your certificate of incorporation and your IRD and GST numbers together. Most guides send you off to do them as separate processes, which is three extra jobs for no reason.

Step 4. Get your NZBN. Free. Companies are assigned one automatically. Sole traders and partnerships can apply and most do not know they can. Worth ten minutes because some larger customers and most government procurement ask for it before they will set you up as a supplier.

4. Tax: IRD, GST and ACC

GST: only if you will pass $60,000. Registration is compulsory if your turnover was at least $60,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it to be in the next 12. It is also compulsory at any turnover if you add GST to your prices. Below that it is your choice.

Registering early is not free. You add 15% to your prices, which matters if you sell to consumers and does not matter if you sell to GST-registered businesses, because they claim it back. You also file GST returns from then on. Two-monthly is what most people end up on. Six-monthly is only available under $500,000 of turnover, and monthly becomes compulsory over $24 million. Register when you have to, or when you are buying enough that the claims outweigh the filing.

ACC: budget for it before it invoices you. Every self-employed person pays ACC levies. Not optional, nothing to opt into. As a sole trader you are automatically on CoverPlus.

The part that catches people is the timing. Your first invoice arrives after you file your first tax return, so it typically lands in your second year and covers your first. If you have already spent that money, it is a bill you did not plan for arriving in a month you did not expect.

Provisional tax: the second bill in the same year. If your tax at the end of the year comes to more than $5,000, you start paying next year's tax in instalments during the year, while you are still settling the year just finished. For a first profitable year that means two tax bills landing close together. It is the same shape as the ACC surprise and usually a larger number. Ask your accountant to work out the year-two total before you spend the year-one profit.

The R&D Tax Incentive is a 15% credit on eligible spend with a $50,000 annual minimum, which does not apply if an approved research provider does the work for you. It is the most underused tool available to technical founders and is covered in full in The DIY RDTI.

5. Licences and Regulations

This is the step people skip and then hear about from a council officer.

Compliance Matters asks three questions about your business and returns the licences, permits and regulations that apply to you. If you sell food, serve alcohol, work in people's homes, care for children, employ anyone, or make noise, there is almost certainly something on that list.

A software founder can skip this. Most other businesses cannot.

6. Business Accounts and Accounting

Keep business money separate from personal money from day one. Not for compliance reasons, but because untangling a mixed account at tax time, or during due diligence, costs real hours.

Every provider below is listed at equal weight. Nobody paid to be here.

Accounting. Xero and MYOB are the two packages most New Zealand accountants work in. Ask yours which one they want before you pick, because doing it the other way round means either paying them to learn yours or migrating later.

7. Small Businesses, Charities and Social Enterprises

If you are a small business or an SME, everything above is your path. There is no separate process, and "SME" is not a legal category in New Zealand. MBIE defines a small business as one with fewer than 20 employees, which is around 97% of all enterprises here. A sole trader doing $80,000 and a company doing $4 million register the same way. The only thresholds that change anything are $60,000 of turnover, where GST becomes compulsory, and your first employee, where PAYE, KiwiSaver and a written employment agreement start.

If you are not keeping the profits, the structure changes and most of the rest still applies.

Registering as a charity is a second step. Incorporating gives you a legal entity. Registering with Charities Services is separate and gives you exemption from income tax on income relating to your charitable purposes, plus donee status, which Inland Revenue usually grants automatically once you are registered. Donee status is what lets your donors claim a tax credit, so it is often the difference between a donation happening and not happening. The ongoing obligation is an annual return within six months of your balance date.

What charitable registration costs you. It buys tax exemption and donee status. What it costs is control over the money: assets are locked to the charitable purpose, you cannot distribute profit to owners, and you cannot issue shares. That last one is the constraint that catches people, because it means you cannot raise equity investment.

So social enterprises that want investment generally stay a company and pay tax. Ones running on grants and donations register as a charity. Some do both, with a trading company owned by a charitable trust, which works but costs two sets of accounts and two sets of obligations forever. Decide which you are before you register, because restructuring afterwards means new entities, transferred assets and a lawyer.

If your group already exists, check the register. Societies that did not re-register under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 by 5 April 2026 were removed, and a removed society no longer legally exists. A removed society can apply to be restored to the register until 6 April 2032, which costs $177.78 plus GST and requires a constitution that complies with the 2022 Act.

8. Visas for Foreign Founders

Skip this unless you are moving to New Zealand to run the business. You do not need a visa to own a New Zealand company from overseas.

The Entrepreneur Work Visa closed to new applicants on 26 August 2025. Its replacement, the Business Investor Work Visa, is for experienced investors buying into businesses that have traded for at least five years and employ at least five staff. It is not a startup visa, and for most early-stage founders relocating here it is not a realistic pathway. Get immigration advice rather than assuming there is a direct equivalent to what closed.

9. Starting a Startup Specifically

A startup is a business, so everything above applies. Three things differ.

You will almost certainly want a company rather than a sole trader structure, because you cannot issue shares without one, and you will need to issue shares to co-founders, early employees and investors.

Get the cap table right at incorporation. Fixing founder splits after money is in is expensive and occasionally fatal.

Get a shareholders' agreement if you have co-founders. It is not legally required and it is the cheapest thing you will ever buy relative to what it prevents. Agree vesting, and agree what happens when someone leaves, while you all still like each other. Every founder who skipped this and regretted it skipped it for the same reason: it felt unnecessary at the time.

And accelerators, grants and investors are a separate decision from setting the company up. Registering costs $148.05. Choosing the wrong accelerator or the wrong first cheque costs equity, years, and sometimes the company.

Registered and ready to raise?

The Startup Funding in New Zealand directory maps every active capital provider for NZ startups, from pre-seed to growth. The NZ Startup Accelerators directory shows which programmes put cash in and exactly what equity they take. The Free Templates directory has shareholders' agreements and cap table tools vetted for NZ founders.

10. Full Index of Official Links

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to register a company in New Zealand?

$148.05 including GST: $11.50 to reserve the name and $136.55 to incorporate. After that, $57.20 a year for the annual return. Becoming a sole trader costs nothing.

Do I need to register as a sole trader in New Zealand?

No. You do not register yourself or your business with any government agency. You tell Inland Revenue you are working for yourself, and register for GST if you will turn over $60,000 or more.

How long does it take to register a company?

The application takes under an hour. The certificate is issued once every director and shareholder returns a signed consent form, which is what actually sets the timeline. You have 20 working days from name reservation to complete it.

When do I have to register for GST?

When your turnover was at least $60,000 over the last 12 months, or you expect it to be over the next 12. It is also compulsory at any turnover if you add GST to your prices. Below that it is optional.

Do I need a licence to run my business?

It depends entirely on your industry and region. Compliance Matters will tell you in a couple of minutes, and it is faster than finding out from the council.

Can a foreigner start a business in New Zealand?

Yes. You do not need a visa to own a New Zealand company from overseas, but the company must have at least one director living in New Zealand, or living in Australia and holding a current directorship in a company registered in Australia, not a branch of an overseas company. Whether you can move here to run it is a separate question, and the visa settings changed in 2025.

How do I set up a charity in New Zealand?

Two steps. Incorporate a legal entity first, usually a charitable trust board, which has no registration fee. Then register separately with Charities Services, which is what gives you the income tax exemption and donee status.

What legal structure should a social enterprise use in New Zealand?

There is no social enterprise legal form here. You pick between a company, a charitable trust, or a company owned by a charitable trust. The deciding question is whether you need to raise equity investment, because a charity cannot issue shares.

Do I need an accountant to register a company?

No. The Companies Office process is designed to be done yourself and most founders do. An accountant becomes worth paying at the point you have GST returns, payroll, or a structure question involving family property or existing assets.

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