Financial reporting fees and penalties

Avoiding late fees and infringement penalties

If you're filing financial statements under the Companies Act 1993 the fee is different than if you need to file them under Financial Markets Conduct (FMC) Act 2013. Fees must be paid at the time you submit your financial statements to the Companies Office.

All fees are in New Zealand dollars (NZD) and the fees shown below are effective from 1 July 2022.

Service

 Companies Office fee excl GST FMA levy excl GST Total excl GST Total incl GST
File financial statements under the Companies Act 1993 $175 N/A $175 $201.25
File financial statements under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013 $175 $80 $255 $293.25

Late fees

No late fees are charged to FMC reporting entities.

You must, however, pay a late fee if your financial statements aren't filed under the Companies Act by the due date. No GST is applied to this fee as it's a penalty. The late fee is:

  • $25 for financial statements filed up to 25 working days after the due date
  • $100 for financial statements filed more than 25 working days after the due date.

The late fee, and original filing fee, must be paid at the time you file your financial statements.

Penalties if you fail to submit financial statements

If your company fails to file audited financial statements, we're able to issue a $7,000 infringement penalty to each director of your company.

When we issue an infringement penalty notice, we notify directors of the new date by which they must file financial statements, and pay the registration fee, late fee and infringement penalty.

If audited financial statements haven't been submitted by that date, and the $7,000 fee hasn't been paid:

  • the infringement penalty notice is referred to the Department of Courts for collection of the fee, and
  • your company may be referred to our investigation team.

We can also prosecute your company and directors under Section 209G of the Companies Act, resulting in fines of up to $50,000.

Read more about our enforcement approach

Penalties issued by the Financial Markets Authority

If an FMC reporting entity fails to lodge its financial statements by the due date, we notify the Financial Markets Authority (FMA).

The FMA can issue an infringement penalty notice or prosecute any FMC reporting entity that doesn't comply. The infringement penalty is $7,500, and prosecution can result in a penalty of up to $50,000.

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