End of Financial Year NZ: Dates, Checklists and Deadlines

For most New Zealand businesses and every individual taxpayer, the financial year ends on 31 March. The new tax year starts the next morning, 1 April. That single date drives a long tail of work: stocktakes, write-offs, tax returns, provisional tax instalments and one final tax bill that can land nearly a year after the year it relates to.

Inland Revenue calls the last day of your accounting year your balance date, and 31 March is the standard balance date. Most businesses use it. If yours is different, your filing and payment dates shift with it, and Inland Revenue’s guidance for non-standard balance dates is to check your own due dates in myIR rather than rely on the standard ones in this guide. Everything below assumes a 31 March balance date unless it says otherwise.

What the end of financial year actually involves

Nothing dramatic happens at midnight on 31 March. No bell rings. What changes is that one accounting period closes and another opens, and everything you earned, spent, owned and owed has to be sorted into the right side of that line.

In practice, year end means four things. First, you close off the books for the year: income and expenses are finalised, the bank accounts are reconciled, and your financial records for the year are complete. Second, you value what the business holds at that date, mainly trading stock and fixed assets. Third, you report the result to Inland Revenue in an income tax return, attaching either your financial records or the IR10 form summarising income and expenses. Sole traders file an IR3, companies file an IR4, and partnerships file an IR7 with each partner also filing their own IR3. Fourth, the tax on the year is squared up. Anything still owing after provisional tax payments becomes terminal tax, due months later.

For wage and salary earners the process looks quite different. If your only income is salary, wages, interest or PIE income, you usually do not file a return at all. Inland Revenue prepares your income tax assessment for you, sometime between the last weekend in May and the end of July, and lets you know whether you paid the right amount, owe tax, or are due a refund.

Before 31 March: the jobs that cannot wait

Some year-end tasks lose their value the moment 1 April arrives, because the tax rules attach them to the year that is ending. These are the ones to deal with in March, not after it.

Take stock, literally. If your business holds trading stock, it must be valued at the end of each income year. Inland Revenue sets out four valuation methods: cost, discounted selling price, replacement price and market selling value. The method you use for tax generally follows the one you use in your financial statements. There is a useful concession for smaller operators. If your sales for the year are under $1.3 million and a reasonable estimate of your closing stock is under $10,000, you can use the same closing value as your opening value and skip the full stocktake. Everyone else needs a proper count at or near balance date, while the stock is actually there to count.

Write off bad debts before balance date. A debt you have given up on is only deductible in the year you write it off as bad in your books. Inland Revenue’s technical guidance on the bad debt rules is blunt about timing: debts written off after the income year ends belong to the later year, not the one you wanted. So go through your debtors list in March, chase what is chaseable, and formally write off the rest before 31 March. Leaving it until your accountant prepares the accounts in June is too late for that year’s claim.

Review your fixed assets. Depreciation is calculated annually as part of your end-of-year accounts, using Inland Revenue’s approved rates, so year end is when the asset register earns its keep. Check what you still own, what was sold or scrapped during the year, and what you bought. For tax purposes you must claim depreciation on assets that cost more than $1,000 and have an expected life over 12 months, while low-value assets under $1,000 are generally written off in full instead. Assets disposed of during the year need to come out of the register, and any sale proceeds dealt with, before the accounts are finalised.

Reconcile everything. Match the bank accounts to the statements, agree the debtors and creditors lists to your invoices, and clear out suspense items and unidentified deposits. A reconciliation done in March, while the year is still fresh, takes a fraction of the time it takes in October when nobody remembers what a payment was for.

Get your records in order. You are required to keep business records for at least 7 years after the end of the income year they relate to. Invoices, receipts, bank statements, wage records and asset documents all count. Year end is the natural point to file the year’s records away properly, because you will need them to prepare the return and to back it up if Inland Revenue ever asks.

The key dates after 31 March

Miss the March jobs and the year is still recoverable. Miss these dates and penalties enter the picture. Inland Revenue charges penalties where returns are filed late or tax is paid late, so treat the following as fixed points in the calendar. One general relief applies across most of them: where a due date falls on a weekend or public holiday, it moves to the next working day.

Date	What is due
7 May	GST return and payment for the period ending 31 March; third provisional tax instalment for the year just ended
31 May	Fourth-quarter FBT return and payment for employers who file FBT quarterly
7 July	Income tax return filing deadline, if you do not have an extension of time
28 August	First provisional tax instalment for the new tax year
15 January	Second provisional tax instalment (this date falls in the middle of the tax year, in January)
7 February	Terminal tax for the year ended the previous 31 March, if you have no extension of time
7 April	Terminal tax, if you have an extension of time through a tax agent

Filing the return: 7 July, or 31 March with an agent

The standard filing deadline is 7 July following balance date. For the year ended 31 March 2026, that is 7 July 2026. If you are linked to a tax agent, Inland Revenue can give you an extension of time to file up to 31 March the following year, so the 2026 return could be filed as late as 31 March 2027. That extension is not automatic or permanent. Inland Revenue may withdraw it, for example where a return is not filed by 31 March, and it is tied to your agent’s own filing record. People without an agent can also ask Inland Revenue for an extension, decided case by case, but the request should be made before the due date.

Do not confuse filing with paying. A tax agent’s extension moves both dates, but by different amounts, which catches plenty of people out.

Terminal tax: 7 February or 7 April

Terminal tax is the final wash-up for the year: the actual tax on your return, less the provisional tax you have already paid. It is due on 7 February of the year after balance date, so terminal tax for the year ended 31 March 2026 falls due on 7 February 2027. If you have an extension of time through a tax agent, your terminal tax date moves to 7 April 2027. The gap between earning the income and paying the final bill is exactly why provisional tax exists.

Provisional tax during the year

If your residual income tax for a year comes to more than $5,000, you generally become a provisional taxpayer for the next one, paying the expected tax in instalments as you go rather than in one lump sum. Under the standard or estimation options there are three instalments for a 31 March balance date: 28 August, 15 January and 7 May. The ratio option spreads things over six instalments, on 28 June, 28 August, 28 October, 15 January, 28 February and 7 May. The accounting income method (AIM) works differently again, lining your instalments up with your GST filing dates so you pay based on how the business is actually tracking. The instalment dates for non-standard balance dates differ, and Inland Revenue publishes your personalised dates in myIR. Our guide to Tax Rates NZ explains the rates those instalments are calculated from.

GST at year end

GST carries on through year end on its own cycle, but the March period has one quirk worth knowing. GST returns and payments are generally due on the 28th of the month following the end of the taxable period. Two periods are exceptions. The period ending 30 November is due on 15 January, and the period ending 31 March is not due until 7 May. That extra time is some consolation for the fact that the March return covers your busiest compliance month of the year. If you are registering or reviewing your GST setup as part of a year-end tidy-up, our GST Registration NZ guide covers the thresholds and filing frequencies.

Employer duties around year end

Employing staff adds a second layer of deadlines that run straight through the balance date without pausing.

Payday filing does not stop for year end. Employment information still goes to Inland Revenue shortly after each payday, within 2 working days for employers filing electronically. The deductions themselves are paid over on the usual cycle. Employers whose gross annual PAYE and employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT) is under $500,000 pay monthly, by the 20th of the following month, which means deductions from March paydays are due by 20 April. Large employers, at or over $500,000, pay twice a month: deductions for paydays from the 1st to the 15th are due by the 20th of the same month, and deductions for the rest of the month by the 5th of the next month, with the late-December period getting until 15 January.

Fringe benefit tax is the other big one. Employers who provide benefits like work vehicles for private use file FBT returns quarterly unless they qualify for and choose an annual or income year option. The fourth quarter of the FBT year, covering 1 January to 31 March, has a later due date than the others: 31 May rather than the usual 20th of the month after the quarter. Build that into the year-end plan, because it lands in the middle of return preparation season.

Company directors have one more obligation that has nothing to do with Inland Revenue. Your Companies Office annual return is a separate filing that confirms your company’s details each year. It is not a financial document and it is not a tax return, and forgetting it because the tax return is done is a common and avoidable mistake.

Common end of financial year mistakes

Writing off bad debts too late. The write-off has to happen in the income year to be claimed in it. A tidy-up in May costs you a year’s deduction.

Skipping the stocktake without checking the concession. The under-$10,000 estimate only works if your sales are also under $1.3 million. Both tests have to be met.

Assuming a tax agent means nothing is due until 31 March. The agent extension takes your filing deadline to 31 March, but terminal tax is due on 7 April, not at the end of the following March, and provisional tax instalments keep falling due on their normal dates in between.

Budgeting for the return but not the bill. Terminal tax for a 31 March balance date lands in February or April, close to a provisional tax instalment on 15 January and another on 7 May. Three payments in four months is normal, and it still surprises people every year.

Treating 31 March as the end of the paperwork. Records for the year must be kept for 7 years. Throwing out receipts once the return is filed removes the evidence behind it.

Forgetting that a new year starts immediately. From 1 April you are earning income in a new tax year, with its own provisional tax instalments beginning on 28 August. The cleanest year ends are the ones where the new year’s systems, budgets and tax savings habits start on day one.

None of this needs to be frantic. The businesses that handle year end well treat it as a short season with a known shape: count and write off in March, file GST and the final provisional instalment in May, return by 7 July, and have the cash set aside for February or April. For more practical guides like this one, browse our Business & Industry section.

Sources

• Inland Revenue, End of tax year: know what to do, https://www.ird.govt.nz/end-of-tax-year
• Inland Revenue, Payment dates for provisional tax, https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/provisional-tax/paying-your-provisional-tax/payment-dates-for-provisional-tax
• Inland Revenue, Extension of time arrangements, https://www.ird.govt.nz/topics/intermediaries/extension-of-time-arrangements
• Inland Revenue, End-of-year assessments, https://www.ird.govt.nz/working-for-families/yearly-review-and-assessment-processes/end-of-year-assessments
• Inland Revenue, Valuing trading stock, https://www.ird.govt.nz/income-tax/income-tax-for-businesses-and-organisations/types-of-business-income/trading-stock/valuing-trading-stock
• Inland Revenue, Paying deductions to Inland Revenue, https://www.ird.govt.nz/employing-staff/payday-filing/paying-deductions-to-inland-revenue
• Inland Revenue, Working with GST (IR375): GST returns and payment due by the 28th of the month following the taxable period, with the 30 November period due 15 January and the 31 March period due 7 May
• Inland Revenue, Fringe benefit tax: regulatory stewardship review (quarterly FBT return periods and due dates, fourth quarter due 31 May)
• Business.govt.nz, Income tax and provisional tax, https://www.business.govt.nz/tax-and-accounting/basic-tax-types/income-tax-and-provisional-tax
• Business.govt.nz, Claiming for assets that lose their value (depreciation), https://www.business.govt.nz/tax-and-money/business-finance-basics/claiming-for-assets-that-lose-their-value
• Companies Office, Companies Register: Completing an annual return, https://companies-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/help-centre/company-annual-returns/completing-an-annual-return/