The order, in one breath: get an IRD number for the entity (offshore companies apply as an "offshore person" — certified documents, up to 20 working days if posted), register as an employer in myIR or on the paper IR334, then set up the payday-filing channel. Registration must be in place before the first employment information return.
Then the hire itself: a signed written employment agreement before day one (and before the first day if you want a valid 90-day trial), the new-employee details to Inland Revenue before the first payday, and KiwiSaver switched on for eligible hires from the first pay.
What you don't register for: ACC invoices itself annually in arrears from your payroll data; KiwiSaver needs no sign-up. The one separate axis is the Companies Office — an overseas company registers a branch within 10 working days, but only once it is "carrying on business" in New Zealand (Companies Act 1993 ss 332–334).
The New Zealand payroll setup checklist
Work the list top to bottom. The three tax registrations come first because each depends on the one before it; the employment-law steps run in parallel and one of them must be done before the employee's first day. Full detail for each step is in the sections below and in the linked guides.
- IRD number for the entity. Apply as an offshore person if the company is incorporated outside New Zealand (or here but 25% or more offshore-owned) — online or on the paper IR744, with most entity documents certified. Inland Revenue's stated lead time: it "can take 20 working days to arrive if you choose to have it posted." This is the longest lead time in the chain — start here. See Inland Revenue's offshore IRD number page.
- Employer registration. In myIR ("Register for new tax accounts") or on the paper Employer registration – IR334. You'll need "the IRD number to be registered, your contact and bank account details, your business industry classification (BIC) code, the date you start employing staff." Register "as soon as you start employing staff" (Inland Revenue) — Employment New Zealand phrases the trigger a touch earlier, "as soon as you know you are going to employ someone." Details in Registrations & employer IDs.
- myIR / payday-filing channel. Employer registration is the gate to payday filing — for a non-resident employer Inland Revenue says it plainly: "You will need to register before you can file your Employment information – IR348," and a shadow payroll may need to be set up first. What filing then involves every payday is in Statutory lodgement & payday filing.
- Written employment agreement — signed before day one. Every employee must have a written agreement and the employer must ensure it (Employment Relations Act 2000 s 65). If you want a 90-day trial provision, the agreement must be agreed and signed before work starts — otherwise the trial is invalid. This step bites before the tax registrations are even finished. See Employment agreements & wage records.
- New-employee details to Inland Revenue — before the first payday. Send the new hire's "name, KiwiSaver status, IRD number, tax code and contact details" (plus date of birth if held) "before their first pay day or when you file the employment information return that includes their first pay" — via the add-employee flow in myIR, payroll software, or the paper New employee and KiwiSaver details – IR346K. Miss it and the first payday filing has no employee to file against.
- KiwiSaver switch-on. No sign-up step — duties attach with the first eligible hire: auto-enrol eligible new employees, hand over the KS3 information pack, deduct from the first pay and pay the compulsory employer contribution. See the current rates in PAYE & KiwiSaver, explained.
- Companies Office branch registration. An overseas company must register on the Overseas Register within 10 working days of commencing to carry on business in New Zealand (Companies Act 1993 s 334) — a branch registration of the foreign entity, no NZ subsidiary required. Fees are $10 + GST to reserve the name and $130 + GST to register, and you must name a person in New Zealand authorised to accept service. This is a separate axis from the IRD chain — see when it applies below.
- ACC — nothing to do. There is no ACC employer registration. ACC invoices the Work levy and Working Safer levy annually in arrears, using the payroll data Inland Revenue passes on; the earners' levy is collected inside PAYE.
- Baseline minimum-entitlements and record duties. From the first hire you owe the statutory minimum wage and leave entitlements, and you must keep the wages-and-time record and the holiday-and-leave record for at least six years (tax records: seven). See Minimum wage & wage rules and Leave & the Holidays Act.
The IRD chain: number, employer registration, filing channel
Almost everything a new employer needs sits with Inland Revenue, in a fixed order: entity IRD number → employer registration → the myIR channel you file through. There is no separate payroll-tax registration and no social-insurance carrier to notify. The tax-law definition of "employer" is simply a person who pays or is liable to pay a PAYE income payment (Income Tax Act 2007 s YA 1) — no residence or local-entity requirement, which is what makes the whole chain doable from abroad.
Every step is remote. Online IRD number application, a myIR account, electronic registration and filing. The friction points are practical, not legal: getting offshore entity documents certified, the bank account details field at employer registration (Inland Revenue's page asks for them without stating whether the account must be a New Zealand one), and — only if the Companies Act threshold below is crossed — naming a person in New Zealand authorised to accept service. Whether a non-resident employer is obliged to register at all, or simply may register voluntarily, is the subject of Run New Zealand payroll from overseas.
Day one: the agreement that bites before the registrations
None of the tax registrations discharges the duty that attaches to the hire itself, and it lands earliest: every employee must have a written employment agreement, and the employer must ensure it (Employment Relations Act 2000 s 65, with mandatory contents and penalties for non-compliance). Timing is what most checklists get wrong — if you want a 90-day trial, the agreement must be agreed and signed before the employee starts work, or the trial is invalid. The employer must also retain a signed copy that the employee does not hold as the only copy. The mandatory clauses and the retention duties are in Employment agreements & wage records. Note that the Act's definition of "employer" — "a person employing any employee or employees" — carries no residence requirement, so these duties bind an offshore employer exactly as they bind a local one.
Telling Inland Revenue about the hire, and switching on KiwiSaver
Before the employee's first payday — or at latest with the employment information return that includes their first pay — send the new-employee information: "their name, KiwiSaver status, IRD number, tax code and contact details," plus date of birth if held. Channels: the add-employee flow in myIR, payroll software, or the paper IR346K. Miss it and the first payday filing fails its most basic precondition — the employee won't be in the account to file against.
KiwiSaver switches on with that same first hire. From the first eligible employee you must check status and eligibility, auto-enrol eligible new employees, hand over the KS3 information pack, send Inland Revenue the KiwiSaver details on the same timing as above, deduct from the first pay and pay the compulsory employer contribution. The default employee deduction rate and the minimum employer contribution are both 3.5% per the June 2026 IR335 employer's guide — but these are the post-1 April 2026 figures (older guidance says 3%), and a further rise to 4% is legislated for 1 April 2028, so trust the live rate rather than a number on a checklist: the current figures and the rate ladder live in PAYE & KiwiSaver, explained.
Companies Office: branch registration, only if you're "carrying on business"
The Companies Office layer is legally independent of the IRD layer — different statute, different regulator, different test — and it only engages if the overseas company is carrying on business in New Zealand. When it does, s 334 of the Companies Act 1993 requires registration within 10 working days of commencing to carry on business. What it registers is the foreign entity itself — a branch on the Overseas Register — not a subsidiary; there is no NZ-resident-director requirement for a branch.
"Carrying on business" is fact-based, with a statutory exclusion list in s 332: an overseas company does not carry on business here merely because it maintains a bank account, solicits orders that only become binding when accepted offshore, or conducts an isolated transaction completed within 31 days, among others. Employing staff appears in neither the inclusion nor the exclusion list, so the general, fact-based meaning governs — there is no bright-line employment trigger. The mechanics, per the Companies Office: reserve the name first ($10 + GST, RealMe login, name "exactly the same as the name you have registered" at home), then register for $130 + GST, naming at least one person resident or incorporated in New Zealand authorised to accept service (s 336(2)(f)).
Failing to register in time is an offence by the company and every director (s 334(6)). What it does not do is unwind your dealings: s 335 provides that the failure "does not affect the validity or enforceability of any transaction entered into by the overseas company." So late registration is a compliance exposure for the company and its board, not a contract risk for counterparties — fix it, don't panic.
ACC and the duties you don't register for
There is no ACC employer registration step. Employers pay the Work levy and Working Safer levy on an annual invoice, in arrears: "We'll get your income and payroll details from Inland Revenue after you file your tax return and Employer Monthly Schedules" (ACC's wording — "Employer Monthly Schedule" is legacy terminology for what is now the payday-filed employment information). The employee-side earners' levy never appears on an invoice — it is collected inside PAYE. File payday returns correctly and ACC takes care of itself; the levy cycle is covered in Statutory lodgement & payday filing.
Finally, the baseline that attaches from the first hire regardless of any registration: the statutory minimum wage and leave entitlements, and the record-keeping duties. The ERA wages-and-time record and the Holidays Act 2003 holiday-and-leave record must each be kept for at least six years (tax records run to seven). These are in Minimum wage & wage rules and Leave & the Holidays Act.
Quick answers
What does a new employer have to set up before the first payday in New Zealand?
The pre-payday sequence runs almost entirely through Inland Revenue. First get an IRD number for the entity (an offshore company applies as an offshore person, with certified documents — allow up to 20 working days if the number is posted), then register as an employer in myIR or on the paper IR334 form, which needs the IRD number, contact and bank account details, a business industry classification (BIC) code and the date you start employing staff. That registration is the gate to the payday-filing channel and must be in place before your first employment information return. Before the employee's first day you must have a signed written employment agreement, and before their first payday you must send Inland Revenue the new-employee details — name, KiwiSaver status, IRD number, tax code and contact details — and switch on KiwiSaver for eligible hires. ACC needs no registration, and the Companies Office only engages if you are carrying on business here.
Can a foreign employer complete New Zealand payroll setup remotely?
Yes. Nothing in the tax-law definition of employer requires a New Zealand entity, and the whole registration chain can be done remotely: the offshore IRD number application (online or on the paper IR744, with certified entity documents), a myIR account, and employer registration in myIR or on the IR334. Inland Revenue's guidance for non-resident employers says registration must precede the first employment information return and that a shadow payroll may need to be set up first. The practical friction points are getting offshore documents certified, the bank account details requested at employer registration, and — only if the company is carrying on business in New Zealand under the Companies Act — naming a person in New Zealand authorised to accept service. Whether a non-resident employer must register at all, or can register voluntarily, is covered in our guide to running New Zealand payroll from overseas.
When must the written employment agreement be signed?
Every employee must have a written employment agreement, and the employer must ensure it (Employment Relations Act 2000 s 65). Timing is the trap most checklists miss: if you want a 90-day trial provision, the agreement must be agreed and signed before the employee starts work, or the trial is invalid. So the agreement belongs before day one — ahead of the first payday, and often ahead of the tax registrations being finished. The employer must also retain a signed copy that the employee does not hold as the only copy, and keep wages-and-time and holiday-and-leave records for at least six years.
Does a new employer register separately for KiwiSaver, ACC or the Companies Office?
KiwiSaver and ACC need no sign-up step; the Companies Office is a separate axis that only sometimes applies. KiwiSaver duties attach automatically from the first eligible hire — you auto-enrol eligible new employees, hand over the KS3 information pack, and deduct and contribute from the first pay. ACC needs no employer registration at all; it invoices the Work levy and Working Safer levy annually in arrears from the payroll data Inland Revenue passes on, and the earners' levy is collected inside PAYE. The Companies Office is different: an overseas company must register a branch on the Overseas Register within 10 working days, but only once it is carrying on business in New Zealand (Companies Act 1993 ss 332-334), for $10 plus GST to reserve the name and $130 plus GST to register.
The whole setup checklist as a guided flow, in the order the law issues it
Ledra Pay's New Zealand country pack walks the setup as a guided flow — offshore IRD number, employer registration, the myIR filing channel, the signed agreement before day one, new-employee details before the first payday, KiwiSaver switch-on — carries the IRD number and Overseas Register status on one employer record, and keeps the evidence behind each step in an auditable chain, so your first payday is a checklist you finish rather than folklore you reconstruct.
See NZ coverage →Government sources
- Inland Revenue — Register as an employer (register as soon as you start employing staff; the IRD number, contact and bank account details, BIC code and start date; myIR or IR334).
- Inland Revenue — Offshore business or organisation IRD number application and IRD numbers for businesses and organisations (offshore-person definition; certified documents; up to 20 working days if posted).
- Inland Revenue — Non-resident employers filing employment information (register before the first IR348; shadow payroll).
- Inland Revenue — Payday filing (file employment information every time you pay employees) and Add new employees to your payroll account in myIR (new-employee fields and before-first-payday timing).
- Inland Revenue — IR335 Employer's guide (June 2026 edition, PDF) (KiwiSaver auto-enrolment, KS3 pack, IR346K timing; 3.5% default deduction and 3.5% minimum employer contribution — post-1 April 2026 figures).
- Inland Revenue — Employer contributions to KiwiSaver and complying funds (compulsory employer contribution 3.5% of gross salary or wages; 4% legislated from 1 April 2028).
- New Zealand Legislation — Companies Act 1993, Part 18 (s 332 carrying-on-business exclusion list; s 334 registration within 10 working days and the s 334(6) offence; s 335 validity of transactions; s 336(2)(f) person authorised to accept service; consolidation as at 1 July 2025).
- Companies Office — How overseas companies set up as an NZ business ($10 + GST name reservation, $130 + GST registration, RealMe, exact-name rule, Overseas Register, register within 10 working days).
- ACC — Understanding levies if you work or own a business (no separate registration; annual invoice from Inland Revenue data; earners' levy inside PAYE).
- New Zealand Legislation — Employment Relations Act 2000 (s 65 written employment agreement and mandatory contents; s 67A 90-day trial; consolidation as at 3 June 2026), with Employment New Zealand — Hiring your first employee, Trial periods (agreement signed before work starts) and Record keeping (keep wages-and-time and holiday-and-leave records for 6 years).
Related
The IRD number, employer registration, ACC, KiwiSaver and the Companies Office test in depth.
No NZ entity? When PAYE obligations attach, the IR56 fallback, and voluntary registration.
Employment information every payday, paying Inland Revenue, and the ACC invoice cycle.