What do I actually need to do to start a business in NZ — and in what order?

What to watch for

Six things that change how the sequence actually plays out.

1. The structure decision sits before everything else and changes the rest of the sequence. If you're going sole trader, there's no entity to register — you trade under your own name (or a trading name, which is just a label, not a legal entity), use your personal IRD number, and the formation work is mostly the GST decision and a bank account. If you're going company, you've got a separate entity to register, a separate IRD number to obtain, separate GST registration to consider for the company, and several inside-the-form decisions during incorporation. The two paths look superficially similar in checklists but diverge meaningfully once you start. See the entry on sole trader or company for that decision; this entry assumes you've made it.

2. If you're going company, the consent-form deadline is the hardest sequencing trap. When you submit your incorporation application, the Companies Office emails consent forms to every director and shareholder. They have to be signed and returned within 20 working days of submitting your online application for incorporation.¹ Miss it and the Companies Office cancels the registration; you lose the fees, you lose the name, and you start over. The practical implication for sequencing: don't submit until you can chase signatures within the week. See the entry on registering a company for the inside-the-form decisions during this step.

3. The IRD number for a new company comes from a separate application after incorporation. You can request the company's IRD number during the incorporation flow on the Companies Office portal (a co-registration option), or you can apply separately afterwards through myIR. The co-registration is faster but commits you to it before incorporation has actually completed, which can cause minor sequencing weirdness if the incorporation gets delayed for any reason. Either way, the company's IRD number is a different IRD number from your personal one, and a number of downstream steps (bank account, GST registration, payroll registration) need it.² A sole trader uses their personal IRD number for everything business-related; no separate application needed.

4. Bank account is where the wait actually lives. NZ banks require an IRD number to open a business bank account. For a sole trader, that's your personal IRD number — easy. For a company, that's the company's IRD number, which means incorporation has to be complete and the IRD number has to be issued before you can open the account. Most banks also want the certificate of incorporation, the company's NZBN, and identification for all directors and signatories. Allow a couple of weeks between "incorporation submitted" and "money in business bank account", which is longer than people expect. The fix isn't a different sequence — it's setting expectations early.

5. The GST decision can be deferred, but the moment you start trading toward $60,000, the clock starts. GST registration is a separate decision from getting an IRD number; you don't have to register at incorporation. You can wait until you're approaching the $60,000 threshold or until voluntary registration starts to look worthwhile. But the threshold runs on a rolling 12-month basis (not a financial year), so once you start trading you're effectively on a clock — the question is whether to register now and get used to the discipline, or wait and register when it bites. See the entry on GST registration for the trade-offs; the sequencing point here is that GST is a decision you can defer without penalty, not a step you have to do at formation.

6. The first invoice is the moment everything else has to be in place. Once you send the first invoice, you're in business — which means your structure has to be decided, your IRD number has to be in hand (if you're a company, the company's), your GST status has to be set, your bank account has to be working, and your invoice has to comply with the taxable supply information rules. For a sole trader, this is all relatively quick — a few days from start to first invoice if you move. For a company, allow two to three weeks from "I'll incorporate today" to "first invoice sent", because of the cumulative dependencies. The trap people hit is invoicing under the personal name when the company is the supposed supplier — that creates a mess on the GST and tax-return side that's tedious to clean up.

A separate point on what the sequence actually is. The shape under the watch-fors above is closer to a small dependency graph than a linear checklist — two paths that split at the structure decision and rejoin at the bank account, with three different kinds of step sitting on each path.

Sole trader path: structure decision → use personal IRD number → GST decision → bank account → first invoice.

Company path: structure decision → name reservation → submit incorporation → consent forms returned within 20 working days of application submission → certificate of incorporation issued → company IRD number issued → GST decision → bank account → first invoice.

Three different kinds of step sit on those paths. Decisions — picking a structure, picking a name, picking whether to register voluntarily for GST, picking a bank, picking how to invoice — these are where most of your time actually goes; you can't take the next step until each is made. Procedural steps — submitting forms, applying for numbers, opening accounts — these are mostly fast once the decisions are made. Processing waits — Companies Office cancelling-or-confirming, IRD issuing the company's IRD number, the bank running its onboarding checks — these are someone else's clock, not yours; you can't speed them up, you can only plan around them.

What makes the sequence feel slow isn't the steps. It's the order: a decision has to be made before you can take a step, then a step depends on a processing wait, then the wait blocks the next decision. Building a few buffer days into each handoff — particularly the consent-form chase and the IRD-number-to-bank-account window — is the discipline that turns a stressful three-week scramble into a calm one-week setup.

Where this entry stops

This entry maps the sequence and routes to the entries that go deep on each step. It doesn't cover:

• The structure decision itself. That's its own decision with its own trade-offs. See sole trader or company.
• The inside-the-form decisions during company registration. Share structure, BIC code, constitution adoption, consent forms — covered in registering a company.
• The GST decision and the inside-the-form choices when you do register. Filing frequency, accounting basis, voluntary registration considerations — covered in GST registration.
• What goes on the first invoice. Mandatory vs convention, three-tier requirements, the 28-day rule — covered in first tax invoice.
• The hiring sequence if you're starting with employees from day one. The journey from one-person operation to employer is structurally distinct and warrants its own entry — see hiring your first employee.
• Sector-specific licensing and registration. Food premises, alcohol, building, financial services, healthcare, real estate, transport — every regulated sector has its own licensing layer on top of the general business-formation steps. Specialist territory; talk to your industry body or a relevant lawyer.
• NZBN. A New Zealand Business Number is automatically assigned to companies at registration; sole traders can apply separately at nzbn.govt.nz. It's identifier infrastructure, not a procedural step that needs its own treatment.

If you're planning to engage staff in any form — employees, contractors, casuals — there are decisions to make before the first day of work that are easier to get right at formation than to fix after. See the entries on contractor classification and hiring your first employee. And if you're not sure whether your specific situation fits the standard formation flow, half an hour with an accountant at this stage costs roughly the same as a couple of restaurant meals and saves more than that in time and rework if anything is unusual about your case.

Last verified 27 May 2026 against the Companies Act 1993 (formation provisions), Tax Administration Act 1994 (IRD number obligations), and current Companies Office and IRD operational guidance. Full source list: references. The sequencing framework is stable; the entry is unlikely to drift unless one of the underlying agency processes changes materially.