A non-resident business supplying remote services from outside New Zealand to a New Zealand resident customer may be required to register for, collect and return GST on these supplies. This registration means it will generally only account for GST on its sales in its GST returns.
Remote services can include:
- digital content such as e-books, movies, TV shows, music and online newspaper subscriptions
- games, apps, software and software maintenance
- offshore gambling services
- website design or web publishing services
- legal, accounting, insurance or consultancy services.
Who needs to charge GST on remote services
You may need to register for and charge GST if you supply remote services to New Zealand resident consumers directly, or if you operate an online marketplace, such as an app store.
Overseas businesses that supply remote services need to register for GST when their total supplies of goods and services to New Zealand consumers either:
- were NZ$60,000 or more in the last 12 months
- will exceed NZ$60,000 or more in the next 12 months.
Total supplies are all sales to New Zealand consumers that GST applies to, including:
- low value goods valued at NZ$1,000 or less each
- online services and digital products such as e-books, software downloads and streamed movies and music
- services such as delivery, insurance and your fees
- listed services such as ride-sharing, food and beverage delivery, or short-stay and visitor accommodation provided through an online marketplace.
Online marketplaces
When certain conditions are satisfied, an operator of a marketplace, such as an app store, may be required to register and return GST on supplies made through the marketplace, instead of the underlying supplier.
Online gambling services
Offshore gambling duty applies to GST registered persons that are located outside of New Zealand who supply remote gambling services to New Zealand residents. If you provide these gambling services, you'll need to pay offshore gambling duty.
How to tell if your customer is a New Zealand resident
To confirm if your customer is a New Zealand resident you will need to check you have 2 pieces of evidence, that do not conflict, which indicate the recipient of the service is a New Zealand resident. You can use the following as evidence:
- the person's billing address
- the internet protocol (IP) address of the device used by the person, or another geolocation method
- the person's bank details, including the account the person uses for payment, or the billing address held by the bank
- the mobile country code of the international mobile subscriber identity stored on the subscriber identity module (SIM) card used by the person
- the location of the customer's fixed land line through which the service is supplied to them
- any other commercially relevant information.
How to tell if your customer is GST registered
You will not need to return GST if you supply services to a New Zealand GST-registered business.
Suppliers should treat New Zealand resident customers as not registered for GST unless the customer either:
- states they are GST-registered
- provides their GST registration number or a New Zealand business number.
Registering for GST
If your supplies to New Zealand resident customers exceed the registration threshold of NZ$60,000, you need to register for GST.
Register for GST on low value imported goods, remote services or listed services
Filing frequency
You must have a quarterly filing frequency if you only supply:
- remote services
- low value imported goods
- listed services.
If you start supplying goods or services in New Zealand other than these, you will need to change to either monthly, 2-monthly or 6-monthly filing.
More information
Find more information in the special report on our Tax Policy website.
Special report on GST on cross-border supplies of remote services