New Zealand runs one of the most open business registers in the world. The Companies Register, maintained by the New Zealand Companies Office within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, can be searched by anyone free of charge, and the search returns not only the company’s details but its directors, its shareholders and the full set of documents it has filed. Around twenty further registers — incorporated societies, limited partnerships, charitable trusts, financial service providers, personal property securities and more — sit alongside it in the same office.

The official company register in New Zealand

The registrar is the New Zealand Companies Office, at companiesoffice.govt.nz, the government agency responsible for administering New Zealand’s business registers and part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). The company register itself is published at companies-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz and rests on the Companies Act 1993.

Four registers are the principal ones:

  • Companies Register — companies incorporated in New Zealand and overseas companies registered to carry on business there.
  • Disclose Register — offers of financial products and managed investment schemes under the Financial Markets Conduct Act 2013.
  • Financial Service Providers Register — persons and businesses providing financial services.
  • Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR) — security interests in personal property, the standard check before lending against or buying movable assets.

Beyond these the Companies Office administers more than twenty specialised registers, including those for incorporated societies, limited partnerships, charitable trusts, auditors, building societies, credit unions and registered unions. Every registered business also has a New Zealand Business Number (NZBN), the single identifier that links its records across government.

New Zealand keeps no register of sole traders. A person trading on his own account is not required to register as an entity; he obtains an NZBN and registers for tax, but there is no register entry to look up, so a New Zealand sole trader cannot be verified in the way a company can.

Incorporated societies: a register that has just been rebuilt

Anyone dealing with a New Zealand club, association or community body must know about the Incorporated Societies Act 2022. Every society incorporated under the previous 1908 Act had to reregister under the new Act by 5 April 2026, or else appoint a liquidator or apply for dissolution. A society that did nothing by that date ceased to exist as an incorporated entity: its members can be personally responsible for its debts and obligations such as leases, it can no longer contract in its corporate name or decide on its own assets, another group may incorporate under the same name, and the Registrar rather than the society’s officers may direct what happens to its assets. Any information about a New Zealand incorporated society drawn from before that deadline should therefore be re-checked against the current register.

Legal forms that can be registered in New Zealand

English is the working language of New Zealand law, so the forms below carry their statutory names.

Companies under the Companies Act 1993:

  • Limited company (Limited or Ltd) — the standard New Zealand company. Shareholders’ liability is limited to the amount unpaid on their shares, one shareholder and one director suffice, and at least one director must live in New Zealand or in a prescribed enfranchised country. There is no minimum capital and no distinction of substance between “private” and “public” companies; a company simply becomes subject to the financial markets regime if it offers financial products to the public.
  • Unlimited company — a company whose shareholders accept unlimited liability for its obligations; permitted but rare.
  • Co-operative company — a company registered under the co-operative companies legislation, in which the shareholders are also the principal transacting parties; widely used in New Zealand’s dairy and agricultural sectors.
  • Overseas company — a company incorporated outside New Zealand that carries on business there must register on the Companies Register, file its constitutional documents and, if it is large, its financial statements.

Other registrable entities:

  • Limited partnership — formed under the Limited Partnerships Act 2008 with at least one general partner, who manages and is liable without limit, and limited partners whose exposure is capped at their contribution and who must not take part in management. It has legal personality and is a common fund and investment vehicle.
  • Incorporated society — a membership body with legal personality under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022, used by clubs, sports bodies and community organisations, and now subject to a substantially heavier governance and reporting regime than under the old Act.
  • Charitable trust board — a board incorporated under the Charitable Trusts Act 1957, by trustees of a charitable trust or by the members of a charitable society.
  • Building society, credit union and industrial and provident society — mutual bodies registered on their own registers within the Companies Office.
  • Registered union — an employee organisation registered under the employment relations legislation, with its own register.

Unregistered forms: the ordinary partnership under the Partnership Law Act 2019 and the sole trader are not registered as entities; they exist by agreement or by fact, and appear in public records only through the NZBN and tax registrations.

Information available from the register

The Companies Register is free and needs no account. A search on the company name, number or NZBN returns the company’s registered name and number, its NZBN, its incorporation date and status, its registered office, address for service and address for communication, its ultimate holding company where one is recorded, and its annual return filing month.

What sets New Zealand apart is the depth of the free record. The register shows the directors by name with their residential addresses and appointment dates, and the shareholders with the number of shares held and the allocation between them — so ownership of an ordinary New Zealand company is public without any legitimate-interest test. It also carries the total number of shares on issue, the record of share allocations and transfers, and the complete list of documents filed, most of which can be viewed and downloaded free of charge.

The register additionally records charges and other filings historically registered against companies, insolvency events including liquidation, receivership and voluntary administration with the appointee’s details, and removals from the register with the ground and date. The Personal Property Securities Register is searched alongside it for security interests over the company’s assets.

Financial statements are filed only by some companies. The obligation falls on large New Zealand companies — those which, over the two preceding accounting periods, exceeded the statutory asset or revenue thresholds, with substantially higher thresholds where a quarter or more of the shares are held overseas, or which have a large subsidiary — on large overseas companies registered in New Zealand, and on all FMC reporting entities including credit unions and building societies. Those companies file audited statements, within five months of balance date for large companies and four months for FMC reporting entities. Small companies outside those categories have no filing obligation at all, and inactive large companies may claim an exemption by filing a declaration within five months of balance date.

What the register does not disclose

Most companies file no accounts. Because the reporting duty is limited to large companies, large overseas companies and FMC reporting entities, no financial information whatever is publicly available for the great majority of New Zealand companies. This is the mirror image of the register’s openness on ownership: names are transparent, numbers usually are not.

There is no beneficial ownership register. New Zealand publishes registered shareholders, not ultimate beneficial owners, so where a registered shareholder is a nominee, a trustee or a foreign company the person behind it must be traced through other means — a point of long-standing international criticism of New Zealand structures, and one that the visible shareholder list can mask rather than solve.

Sole traders and ordinary partnerships leave no entity record, so they cannot be verified through the register. And an incorporated society that failed to reregister by 5 April 2026 has ceased to exist, which means an entry found in a cached or third-party database may no longer correspond to a live legal person.

Documents that can be obtained from the register

  • Company extract and company summary — the current register entry: name, number, NZBN, status, incorporation date, addresses, directors, shareholders and shareholdings, and annual return month. Free to view and the everyday first check on a New Zealand counterparty.
  • Certificate of incorporation — evidence that the company was incorporated under the Companies Act 1993, with its name, number and date of incorporation.
  • Constitution — the company’s constitution where it has adopted one; a New Zealand company may also operate without one and rely on the Act, in which case none is filed.
  • Annual return — the yearly confirmation of the company’s particulars, directors and shareholders, filed in the company’s allocated month; its filing history is a compliance indicator in itself.
  • Financial statements and auditor’s report — filed by large companies, large overseas companies and FMC reporting entities, and viewable on the register for those companies.
  • Particulars of directors and shareholders and their changes — the filings recording appointments, resignations, changes of address, share allocations and share transfers, from which the ownership and control history is reconstructed.
  • Overseas company filings — the constitutional documents, particulars of directors and, for large overseas companies, financial statements filed on registration and annually thereafter.
  • Insolvency filings — the notices and reports on liquidation, receivership and voluntary administration, with the appointee’s name and the dates of appointment and of each report.
  • Removal and restoration documents — the notices of intention to remove a company from the register, the removal itself and any restoration, establishing whether and when the company ceased to exist.
  • PPSR financing statements — the registered security interests over the company’s personal property, searched separately on the Personal Property Securities Register.
  • Incorporated society documents — the constitution, officer details, annual financial statements and reregistration filings held on the Incorporated Societies Register under the 2022 Act.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the official business register in New Zealand?

The Companies Register, administered by the New Zealand Companies Office within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment under the Companies Act 1993, alongside some twenty further registers including incorporated societies, limited partnerships, charitable trusts, financial service providers and personal property securities.

Is the New Zealand register free?

Yes. Searching the Companies Register is free and requires no account, and most filed documents can be viewed and downloaded at no charge, including directors’ and shareholders’ details.

Can I see who owns a New Zealand company?

You can see the registered shareholders and their shareholdings, free of charge — which is more than most registers publish. New Zealand has no beneficial ownership register, however, so a nominee or foreign corporate shareholder still has to be traced elsewhere.

Are the accounts of New Zealand companies public?

Only for some. Large New Zealand companies, large overseas companies registered in New Zealand and all FMC reporting entities must file audited financial statements; smaller companies file none, so no accounts are available for the majority of companies on the register.

Are sole traders registered?

No. A sole trader is not registered as an entity in New Zealand; he obtains a New Zealand Business Number and registers for tax, but there is no register entry to search.

What happened to incorporated societies in April 2026?

Societies incorporated under the 1908 Act had to reregister under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 by 5 April 2026, or appoint a liquidator or apply for dissolution. Those that did nothing ceased to exist as incorporated entities, with their members potentially personally liable for the society’s obligations.

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