Reporting to the Companies Office
Information and documents you must provide to the Companies Office
After you start a company and incorporate it with the Companies Office, you must keep the information about your company up to date on the Companies Register.
When you set up your company
When you incorporate your company, you’ll need to provide:
- its name
- contact details
- details of the directors — including their consent to be a director
- information about the shares and shareholders, and
- the constitution, if you have one.
Information and documents you must submit every year
The directors of a company are responsible for keeping information about the company up-to-date on the Companies Register.
Annual returns
You must file an annual return on behalf of the company each year. It confirms details about your company — it's not a tax return or a financial statement.
We'll send a reminder to your email address before the date the annual return is due.
If you don't file an annual return by the due date and don't respond to our communications, we may consider that your company is no longer operating. In this case, we can remove the company from the register.
Financial statements
Some companies — mainly large New Zealand and overseas companies — must submit audited financial statements or a group financial statements every year.
Information and documents that must be up to date
If there are changes to your company details at any time during the year, you need to notify us. You must tell us about many of these changes within a specific timeframe.
Your company addresses
Notify us if any of your company’s addresses change, including:
- your registered office
- address for service — where legal documents can be sent
- communication address — so we can stay in touch with you.
Directors' details
Notify us within 20 working days of any changes to a company directors' details, including:
- their name
- residential address
- their date of appointment or resignation.
Shareholders' details
Notify us of:
- new shareholders
- shareholders that no longer own shares and have been removed from your company’s share register.
Changes to shares in your company or your share register
Notify us within 10 working days of:
- any changes to the total number of shares in your company
- if you're keeping your share register somewhere other than your registered office — this can only happen if your constitution allows you to divide your share register.
Your company constitution
Notify us within 10 working days if you decide to add a company constitution, make a change to your existing constitution or decide to revoke it.
Other business activities you must tell us about
Some other actions your business decides to take must be reported to us.
Changing your company's name
If you change your company's name you first need to reserve a new company name. If your company has a constitution, you need to follow the procedures outlined in that to change its name.
Company amalgamations
Notify us if your company merges with, or takes over the assets and liabilities of another company or companies.
Registering a financial product or managed investment scheme
If you offer a financial product or a managed investment scheme, you need to register that on the Disclose Register.