New Zealand resident director in 2025

When incorporating a company in New Zealand, our foreign Clients will be required to appoint a resident director in New Zealand. Healy Consultants Group will assist our Clients in fulfilling this statutory obligation.

Under the New Zealand Companies Act 1993, all companies must have at least 1 director who is ordinarily resident in the country. However, the shareholders can be of any nationality, ensuring full 100% foreign ownership. Kindly refer to these important considerations:

Advantages of appointing New Zealand resident director

• By appointing a New Zealand resident director, our Clients will fulfil the statutory requirement and complete the company registration process successfully;
• Healy Consultants Group will prepare nominee director agreement to be signed by both our Clients and the nominee;
• The agreement is to secure the interest of the nominee director. The nominee should remain just a name on the records and does not have any control over the day-to-day activities of the business.

Problems of appointing New Zealand resident director

• For regulated industries such as Financial Service Provider (FSP) companies, the nominee resident director is subject to higher litigation and financial risk due to the high-risk business nature.

Fees

• Healy Consultants Group’s New Zealand individual resident director fees amount to US$8,125 per annum in unregulated industries. For Financial Service Provider (FSP) companies and other business entities in regulated industries, our standard fees are US$14,000 but may be tailored according to the complexity of our Clients’ business operations and our assessment of the legal risk to the nominee.
• Healy Consultants does not normally allow Clients to pay Singapore resident director fees by instalments. We normally require full payment up front for the year. However, we may consider half-yearly payments for companies in good standing.

Accounting and tax considerations

• With a resident director, Healy Consultants Group believes that it will be easier for our Client to deal with government tax authorities.

Legal and compliance considerations

• According to the Registrar of Companies, a resident director must i) either live in New Zealand or Australia and ii) be a director for a company registered in the country. The Registrar of Companies interprets “live in New Zealand” as a person who is present in the country for more than 6 months during a 12 month-period;
• There is no limit on the number of directors that a company can appoint. Please note that New Zealand does not allow corporate directorship. In addition, the company will be required to publicly register the particulars of their directors and shareholders;
• Before appointment, Healy Consultants Group will provide our Clients basic KYC documents of our nominee to ensure he meets compliance requirements.

Multi-currency corporate bank account opening considerations

• Appointing Healy Consultants Group’s nominee as the resident director will increase the likelihood of corporate bank account approval;
• Our nominee can represent our Client to travel to the bank for a face-to-face KYC meeting. As such, you will not be required to travel. Please note that additional fees may be included for this service depending on the location of the bank.

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