Completing an annual return
Confirming your company details each year
Every year you need to confirm that the information about your company on the Companies Register is correct, and pay a fee of $49.74 plus GST. This is called an annual return.
If you’re a company director, you are responsible for completing these annual returns. But you may authorise another person to complete this on your behalf, such as your solicitor or accountant.
In this guide
The company details you need to confirm
To complete your annual return you need to check the following details.
- Company addresses — These are your company’s registered office address, address for service, and address for communication (the address we use to contact you).
- Ultimate holding company — You need to confirm whether or not your company has an ultimate holding company (UHC). If your company does have a UHC, you need to check that its details are correct.
- Note — A UHC is a company or other body corporate that has control of another company. A UHC is usually a holding company at the top of a tiered structure of companies. Small family owned companies are unlikely to have a UHC.
- Director details — This includes each director’s full legal name, residential address and other contact details. We also recommend you check their dates of appointment.
- Shareholding — This includes the total number of your company’s shares, each shareholder’s full legal name and address, and the number of shares they hold.
You can also:
- change your filing month for future annual returns
- provide or update a mobile phone number to receive an additional text reminder next year, and
- update optional details to be displayed publicly on the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) Register.
How to complete your annual return
Complete your annual return via the Companies Register online service.
You will need to log in with RealMe®. You must also have:
- an online account with us, and
- confirmed authority to complete this annual return for your company.
[PLACEHOLDER] RealMe/Account/Authority Decision tree here [END PLACEHOLDER]
Step by step
- Log in to the Companies Register.
- Select the company from your dashboard.
- (Optional) Complete the NZBN Register fields or select ‘Continue’ to skip this step.
- Check the following details and edit any information that needs to be updated.
For each section, tick the checkbox to ‘Confirm as correct’ once the details are right.- Company addresses
- Ultimate holding company – if your company has one
- Directors details
- Shareholdings
- Confirm who is authorising this annual return.
(This can be a director or an authorised person.) - Check the email address for future annual return reminders and update it if needed.
Note, this also updates the email address for other communications from us. - (Optional) Change the filing month for future annual returns.
- (Optional) Add or update a mobile phone number to receive a text reminder for future annual returns.
- Submit the annual return and pay the fee of $49.74 plus GST.
Please wait until your payment is confirmed onscreen before you close the window.
Find out what payment options are available.
We’ll send you an email when your annual return has been completed. Any changes you made to your company’s details will be added to the register automatically.
Complete your company's annual returnWhen your annual return is due
Your first annual return is due in the calendar year after your company was first incorporated. For example, if your company was incorporated in 2025, your company’s first annual return will be due in 2026.
After that your annual returns are due every year during your filing month.
Your company has an allocated filing month
When your company is first incorporated we allocate a ‘filing month’ for its annual returns. You can complete your annual return any time during that month. If you’re not sure when your company is next due to complete its annual return, you can search the register.
You can change your company's annual return filing month as long as your annual return is not currently due or overdue.
We will send you courtesy reminders
We will send you notifications via email to remind you when your company’s annual return is due. We’ll use your company’s email address for communication. We’ll also send email reminders to directors and other people who have confirmed authority to update your company’s details on the register.
If you’ve provided us with a mobile phone number we’ll also send you reminder texts.
Other guides in
Complying with the law
- Keeping company records
- Reporting to the Companies Office
- Company meetings
- Who needs to submit financial statements
- What it means to be a director
- Reporting a director
- Banned directors
- What it means to be a shareholder
- How we enforce the law
- Making a complaint