New Zealand company taxes

Company tax: the flat 28% and what it means

Every New Zealand company pays income tax at a flat 28% on its taxable profit — there is no graduated scale, no reduced rate for small companies, and no regional corporate tax. That simplicity cuts both ways: a tiny startup pays the same headline rate as a large company, with no entry-level concession (unlike Australia's 25% base rate for small companies). The upside is predictability — you can model the tax line as a single percentage, and compliance is correspondingly lighter than in tiered jurisdictions.

GST and the non-resident / remote-services trap

GST is 15% and registration is compulsory once taxable turnover exceeds NZ$60,000 in any 12-month period. The trap for foreign founders is that the same NZ$60,000 threshold applies to offshore suppliers of 'remote services' — digital products, SaaS, streaming, online consulting — sold to New Zealand-resident consumers. So a non-resident-owned company with no NZ office can still be required to register for, collect and remit 15% GST on its sales into New Zealand. Pure B2B supplies to GST-registered NZ businesses are often zero-rated or outside the rules, so what and to whom you sell determines whether you must register.

Dividends, imputation and withholding for foreign owners

New Zealand operates full dividend imputation: when a company pays tax at 28% it generates imputation credits it can attach to dividends, so a resident shareholder is not taxed twice. A non-resident shareholder, however, cannot use imputation credits — instead, non-resident withholding tax (NRWT) is deducted. Broadly: 0% on fully imputed dividends to a non-resident holding 10% or more of the company, around 15% on fully imputed cash dividends to smaller holders, and up to 30% on unimputed dividends. A double-tax treaty between New Zealand and your country of residence frequently reduces the higher rates, and a supplementary-dividend mechanism can relieve some portfolio shareholders — so the effective cost of getting profit out depends on imputation, your stake, and the relevant treaty.

How a non-resident-owned company is taxed

Because the company is incorporated in New Zealand it is automatically a New Zealand tax resident under the Income Tax Act 2007 and is taxed on its worldwide income — your living overseas does not move the tax base. New Zealand has four independent residence tests (incorporation, head office, centre of management, or director control in New Zealand), and incorporation alone is enough to make the company resident. The flip side matters too: if you genuinely run operations or staff in another country, that can create a foreign permanent establishment and split the tax, and central-management-and-control overseas does not undo NZ residence for an NZ-incorporated company. For a clean single-jurisdiction setup, keep it a straightforward NZ-resident company taxed wholly in New Zealand.

Losses, R&D and incentives

Tax losses can be carried forward to offset future profits, subject to either a 49% shareholder-continuity test or, since the 2020–21 year, a more flexible 'business continuity test' that preserves losses through an ownership change as long as there is no major change in the company's business activities. New Zealand's headline incentive is the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI): a 15% credit on eligible R&D expenditure (minimum NZ$50,000 of eligible spend per year), available to a foreign-owned company the same as a domestic one provided the R&D genuinely occurs in New Zealand and meets the criteria.

Filing calendar and provisional tax

The company income-tax return is the IR4, filed with Inland Revenue. For the standard 31 March balance date it is due 7 July, but linking a registered tax agent extends that to the following 31 March. Profitable companies pay provisional tax in instalments through the year (for a 31 March balance date, around 28 August, 15 January and 7 May), with terminal tax squaring up the difference afterwards (commonly 7 February, extended to 7 April with a tax agent). Separately, the Companies Office annual return (NZ$49.74 + GST) confirms register details each year — it is a registry filing, not a tax return, and the two are easy to confuse.