Starting a business: Your business tax obligations

Starting a business - your balance date

A balance date is the end of an accounting year. When you apply for an IRD number, your balance date will be 31 March. For most businesses the accounting year begins on 1 April and ends the following 31 March. This is referred to as a standard balance date. If you want to use a balance date other than 31 March, you can apply to us to change your balance date.

Change of balance date

To change a balance date you need to write to us and your application should include the following information:

• Your full name and IRD number.
• Which industry you're in, for example farming, fishing.
• The balance date you want to use.
• The reason why you want to use a non-standard balance date.
• Names of any associated businesses which already use this balance date (and their IRD number if known).
• Details of actual or predicted cashflows, stock patterns, customer demands and seasonal patterns.
• Any other information to show that financial accounts prepared to the proposed balance date would be more appropriate than using a 31 March balance date.

Industry balance date

The following table provides a list of commonly recognised industry balance dates.

Industry	Balance date
Apiarist	30 Nov or 31 Dec
Beef cattle or dairy farming	31 May
Education/childcare related services	31 Dec
Fishing	30 Sep
Horse breeding	31 Jul
Kiwifruit orchard	31 Jan, 28 Feb, or 31 Mar
Meat processing and export	31 Aug or 30 Sep
Pipfruit orchard	30 Jun, 31 Dec
Seed dressers	30 Nov
Sheep farming	30 Jun
Tobacco growing	31 Jul

We won't approve a change of balance date for any of these reasons:

• Because it's the anniversary of the date business started.
• Reasons of tax deferral or tax avoidance.
• To take undue advantage of any tax incentive or concession.

See Standard Practice Statement 08/04 for more information about electing to change a balance date.

 

 

 

Date published: 13 Jul 2012

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