Discussion document: Review of New Zealand Companies Office Fees and Levies (2025)
Discussion document for public consultation on proposed fees and levies, and their amounts, administered by the New Zealand Companies Office.
On this page
This is the web version of the discussion document 'Review of New Zealand Companies Office Fees and Levies (2025)'.
Details on how to submit and a PDF version of the discussion document are available on the following page:
Have your say: Review of New Zealand Companies Office Fees and Levies (2025)
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is seeking written submissions on proposals for fees and levies that would recover the costs of operating the New Zealand Companies Office (the Companies Office) and its associated statutory registers. The Companies Office is a business unit within MBIE.
This discussion document includes some questions you may like to respond to in your submission. The questions are listed in the boxes throughout this document and listed in full in Appendix 1: Summary of Questions. Your submission does not need to answer all these questions. Where possible, please include evidence to support your views, for example, references to facts and figures, or relevant examples.
All fees and levies proposed in this document are GST exclusive, unless stated otherwise.
To develop this document MBIE reviewed the current cost of services delivered by the Companies Office, including forecast cost pressures and the fees and levies it currently charges to recover those costs.
The objectives of the review are to ensure that:
- the Companies Office is funded sustainably while ensuring users meet an appropriate portion of the cost given the benefit they receive
- the Companies Office can resource all the functions it is expected to deliver.
This document outlines the proposed changes to fees and levies and key questions to help MBIE understand the impact on your business or organisation.
Proposed timeline for review
| Due date | Action |
|---|---|
| 2 May 2025 | Release of discussion document |
| 13 June 2025 | Deadline for public submissions to MBIE |
| August 2025 | Report to relevant Ministers on submissions and final proposals for changes to fees and levies |
| September 2025 | Seek approval from Cabinet for proposed changes |
| December 2025 | Fees and levies implemented |
Guidance considered in this review
This review takes into account existing guidance on setting charges, including the Treasury’s Guidelines for Setting Charges in the Public Sector and the Office of the Auditor General’s (OAG) Good practice guide: Setting and administering fees and levies for cost recovery. The principles of cost recovery set out in the guidance are reflected in the options for adjusting fees and levies, where relevant.
Guidelines for Setting Charges in the Public Sector(external link) — The Treasury New Zealand
Setting and administering fees and levies for cost recovery: Good practice guide(external link) — Office of the Auditor-General New Zealand
How to use this document
The remainder of this document is structured in 5 sections with 4 appendices.
In this section
Section 3: The basis for setting fees and levies
Proposed fees and levies are set to recover approximately $42 million annually, considering the proposed increase in budget and any forecast deficit.
Section 4: Current and proposed levies
Three levies (2 new levies and 1 current levy) with distinct purposes are proposed to recover costs from a group of users across various registers.
Section 5: Proposed fees and total charges for all registers
This section sets out the proposed fees given the level of cost to be recovered after levy revenue has been applied to each register. The tables within each subsection show what the total charge for specific register services would be, made up of proposed fees and applicable proposed levies.
Appendix 2: Summary of proposed fees and levies
Proposed Companies Office fees and levies set to recover $42 million expenditure.