$42.1 Billion: New Zealand's GST 2026 [Complete Report]

New Zealand collected $42.1 billion in net GST in the year to June 2025, according to Inland Revenue’s 2025 Annual Report, part of $129.4 billion in total tax revenue the department and Customs administered together. GST runs on a single flat 15% rate, a $60,000 compulsory registration threshold, and a filing calendar that scales from six-monthly to monthly depending on turnover. Here is the full 2026 numbers picture, from collections down to who actually has to charge it.

How much GST does New Zealand actually collect?

$42.1 billion in net GST in the year to June 2025, combining what Inland Revenue and New Zealand Customs each administer, according to Inland Revenue’s 2025 Annual Report. That sits inside a larger number: Inland Revenue-administered tax revenue plus net Customs GST totalled $129.4 billion for the same year, an increase of 1.2% from the year to June 2024. GST is one of New Zealand’s largest single revenue lines, second only to income tax, and unlike income tax it is collected continuously through every taxable supply a GST-registered business invoices, not once a year at filing time.

Figure 1: New Zealand’s net GST against total Inland Revenue-administered tax revenue plus net Customs GST, year to June 2025. Source: Inland Revenue, 2025 Annual Report.

What is New Zealand’s GST rate, and has it always been 15%?

15%, flat, on most goods and services, with no lower or higher tiers the way many countries run reduced rates for food, books, or hospitality. New Zealand’s GST has not always sat at 15% though. It launched at 10% in October 1986, rose to 12.5% in 1989, and reached its current 15% on 1 October 2010, according to Inland Revenue, the last of three step increases in the tax’s 40-year history. A small number of supplies are zero-rated (charged GST at 0%, mainly exports and some land transactions) or exempt entirely (mainly residential rents and financial services), but the working rate for anyone issuing a standard tax invoice is 15%.

Who has to register for GST in New Zealand?

Any business or individual whose taxable turnover reaches $60,000 in a rolling 12-month period, current or projected, according to Inland Revenue. That is not a fixed calendar-year test; it is any 12-month window, so a sole trader who crosses $60,000 in trailing revenue in March has to register off that March figure even if their financial year runs to a different date. Registration is required within 21 days of crossing the threshold. A dedicated breakdown of exactly how that $60,000 test works, including the difference between current and projected turnover, is on the way; for now, the short version is that once you are registered, generating a compliant tax invoice on every sale becomes a legal requirement, not an option.

Figure 2: New Zealand’s GST registration threshold. Source: Inland Revenue, Register for GST.

How often do GST-registered businesses have to file?

It scales with turnover, in three tiers. Businesses with taxable turnover up to $500,000 in a rolling 12-month period can choose six-monthly filing, the lightest-touch option. Two-monthly filing is the default frequency assigned at registration and stays available to any GST-registered business with turnover up to $24 million. Once turnover exceeds $24 million in any 12-month period, monthly filing becomes compulsory under sections 15 and 15B of the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985. Returns and payment are both due on the 28th of the month following the end of the taxable period, under section 16 of the same Act, except for the period ending 31 March, which gets pushed out to 7 May.

Figure 3: Number of GST returns a business files per year, by filing frequency. Source: Inland Revenue, Goods and Services Tax Act 1985, ss 15, 15B.

How much GST and tax actually gets paid on time?

94.5% of GST, employer deductions (PAYE) and income tax, worth $110.5 billion, was paid on time and in full in the year to June 2025, according to Inland Revenue’s 2025 Annual Report, up slightly from 94.3% the year before. Inland Revenue also reported collecting $4.3 billion in overdue tax debt during the same year and cited an $11.81 return for every dollar it spent on compliance activity. Filing on time and paying in full are two separate compliance questions; a return can be filed correctly and on schedule while the actual payment lags, which is part of why Inland Revenue tracks both figures rather than one combined pass rate.

Figure 4: Share of GST, PAYE and income tax paid on time and in full, year to June 2025. Source: Inland Revenue, 2025 Annual Report.

How many businesses in New Zealand are actually GST-registered or GST-liable?

617,330 enterprises were operating in New Zealand at February 2025, an increase of 0.5% from a year earlier, according to Stats NZ’s Business Demography Statistics. Of those, 74% had no paid employees at all, meaning the majority of entities tracking their turnover against the $60,000 threshold are sole traders and owner-operators rather than businesses with staff. That skew toward small, unstaffed operations is a big part of why the registration threshold and filing-frequency tiers matter in practice: most GST-liable entities in New Zealand are exactly the kind of business for which a six-monthly or two-monthly filing cadence, rather than monthly, is the realistic norm.

Figure 5: New Zealand enterprises by employee count, February 2025. Source: Stats NZ, Business Demography Statistics.

Filing frequency	Turnover threshold	Returns per year	Default?
Six-monthly	Up to $500,000	2	No, optional
Two-monthly	Up to $24 million	6	Yes
Monthly	Above $24 million	12	Compulsory above $24M

Table 1: New Zealand’s GST filing frequency tiers. Source: Inland Revenue, Goods and Services Tax Act 1985, ss 15, 15B.

The Bottom Line

New Zealand’s GST system runs on a small set of fixed numbers that have not moved in years: a flat 15% rate unchanged since 2010, a $60,000 compulsory registration threshold, and a 21-day window to register once you cross it. What has moved is the money flowing through those rules. Inland Revenue collected $42.1 billion in net GST in the year to June 2025, part of $129.4 billion in total tax revenue, at a 94.5% on-time-and-in-full compliance rate. With 617,330 enterprises operating in the country and 74% of them running with no employees, the GST system’s day-to-day reality is overwhelmingly a sole-trader and small-business one, not a large-corporate one. Whatever tier a business falls into, filing accurately starts with generating tax invoices that already carry the right GST treatment, rather than reconstructing it at return time. For the registration mechanics in full, see New Zealand’s $60,000 threshold guide (on the way), and for how late payment affects the same small-business population once invoices go out, the broader late-payment data covers the pattern across markets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much GST does New Zealand collect a year? $42.1 billion in net GST in the year to June 2025, according to Inland Revenue’s 2025 Annual Report, up from the prior year as part of $129.4 billion in total Inland Revenue-administered tax revenue plus net Customs GST, a 1.2% increase year on year.

What is New Zealand’s GST rate? A single flat rate of 15% on most goods and services, with no reduced-rate tiers. The rate has stood at 15% since 1 October 2010, when it rose from 12.5%, according to Inland Revenue.

At what turnover do I have to register for GST in New Zealand? $60,000 in taxable turnover in any rolling 12-month period, current or projected, according to Inland Revenue. Registration is required within 21 days of crossing that line.

How often do New Zealand businesses file GST returns? It depends on turnover. Businesses with turnover up to $500,000 can file six-monthly, most GST-registered businesses file two-monthly by default, and turnover above $24 million makes monthly filing compulsory under the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985.

Sources and References

1. Inland Revenue: Annual Report 2025, Tax and Payments This Year, net GST collections and on-time payment compliance rate, year to June 2025.
2. Inland Revenue: Inland Revenue Administered Tax Revenue and Net Customs GST, total revenue figures and year-on-year change.
3. Inland Revenue: $4.3 Billion in Overdue Tax Debt Collected, Annual Report 2025.
4. Inland Revenue: Register for GST, $60,000 threshold, 21-day registration window, current and projected turnover tests.
5. Inland Revenue: GST Rate, 15% flat rate and its 1986/1989/2010 rate history.
6. Stats NZ: New Zealand Business Demography Statistics, At February 2025, total enterprise count and share with no employees.
7. Inland Revenue: GST Filing Frequency and Due Dates, six-monthly, two-monthly and monthly tiers under the Goods and Services Tax Act 1985.

Note: All figures verified as of September 2026.