Starting a business in New Zealand
The world’s easiest incorporation statistics are real - an IRD number, a same-day company, GST at $60,000, and provisional tax as the one ambush.
Checked against the sources on 2026-08-30
Before anything else
New Zealand tops the ease-of-starting rankings honestly: a sole trader needs no registration beyond the IRD number they already have, and a company incorporates online at the Companies Office for around NZ$150 in a day, name reservation included. The NZBN - the business number - comes automatically for companies and free on request for sole traders.
The system trusts you to self-manage: income tax through the annual IR3, GST self-assessed, and provisional tax arriving once your residual bill passes $5,000 - the one genuinely surprising mechanism, since year two brings instalments for the current year on top of year one’s bill.
The legal shell
Sole trader or company?
Sole trader
The simple start.
$0.
Personal liability; personal rates to 39%.
Company
Liability, contracts, growth.
~NZ$150 incorporation; annual return small.
28% company rate, imputation credits on dividends, and at least one director living in NZ (or Australia, with conditions) - the residency rule remote founders meet first.
The sequence
Sole trader: just start (and tell IRD)
Use your IRD number, keep records, file the IR3 after year end. Register the NZBN free if you want the business identity.
Company: incorporate at the Companies Office
Where: companiesoffice.govt.nz, with RealMeCost: ~NZ$150 including name reservationTakes: Same day routinely
Name search, directors and shareholders, registered office - the filing walks through it. IRD number for the company and GST registration can ride along in the same flow.
GST at $60,000
Compulsory once turnover passes NZ$60,000 in twelve months; 15% on essentially everything with few exemptions - the cleanest GST design anywhere, which makes compliance genuinely simple.
Meet provisional tax on purpose
Once residual income tax passes $5,000, instalments for the current year begin - the standard uplift method assumes last year plus 5%. The accounting-software AIM method pays as profit actually accrues, which suits lumpy first years.
Watch out: Year two: last year’s bill plus this year’s instalments. The NZ version of the universal trap.
What it costs to start
| What | Amount |
|---|---|
| Sole trader | $0 |
| Company | ~NZ$150 |
| GST | 15% above NZ$60,000 turnover |
| ACC leviesThe accident-cover levy every earner pays - the bill people forget is coming. | Invoiced annually |
The words on the forms
- IRD number
- The tax identity - personal and, separately, the company’s.
- NZBN
- The business number, automatic for companies.
- IR3
- The individual return self-employed income files on.
- Provisional tax
- The instalment system from year two.
- AIM
- The pay-as-profit-accrues provisional method inside accounting software.
- ACC
- The universal accident scheme and its annual levy.
- RealMe
- The government login.
The traps
- The year-two provisional tax stack.
- The ACC invoice nobody mentioned.
- The resident-director rule met at the end of an offshore plan.
- Not registering for GST while charging prices that assumed its margin.
Where to check this yourself
- Companies OfficeIncorporation.
- IRDGST, provisional tax, IR3.
- business.govt.nzThe plain-language official guide.
This is a map, not legal or tax advice - and an honest one about how it was drawn: the Germany guide was written by a person who walked the route; most other countries were drafted with AI against the official sources and have not yet been walked by someone who did it. Laws change. Every guide carries the date it was last checked and the sources to check it yourself - and if you have been through one of these routes, your corrections are exactly what this handbook wants.