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Talking points from Budget 2026 with a focus on measures that may impact business owners.

No major tax rate hikes, but a few compliance shifts. Discover how Budget 2026 impacts your FBT, R&D cash flow, shareholder loans, and NFP rules.

Budget 2026 summary for NZ business owners

Yesterday afternoon, Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivered the 2026 Budget, with a focus on fiscal restraint, reduced spending, and working toward a faster return to surplus by 2029.

As a business owner, you won't find any changes to personal or company tax rates this year. Instead, the focus is squarely on "strengthening" the existing framework, reducing a few compliance headaches, and encouraging investment.

Here is our breakdown of the budget measures that could impact your business and cash flow.


Please note, budget measures are only proposals until they have been officially passed into law.

FBT vehicle rules simplified: A ‘close enough’ approach

If you provide company vehicles to your team, you know how painful keeping meticulous logbooks can be. In a welcome move to slash red tape, the Government is simplifying the Fringe Benefit Tax (FBT) rules for private motor vehicle use. They are doing away with detailed logbook requirements in favour of a "close enough is good enough" approach. 

While the exact operational details will roll out soon, it is designed to significantly reduce the compliance hours you spend tracking company vehicles.

Changes to Research & Development tax incentives

If your business invests in innovation, the Research and Development Tax Incentive (RDTI) is getting a highly practical tweak. Instead of making you wait until the end of the tax year to claim your credits, the Government is introducing in-year payments. This should ease the cash flow burden of ongoing research projects.

The big catch. To balance the books, the cap on non-administrative internal software expenditure for R&D is being slashed from $25 million down to $3 million. If your business develops heavy internal software, you’ll want to review your thresholds.

Shareholder loans face a strict 6-month countdown after company closure

This is a critical one for company directors to note. Following recent consultation on how shareholder advances are handled, the Government has introduced an integrity measure targeting liquidated companies. 

Six months after a company is liquidated or removed from the Companies Register, any outstanding loans it previously made to its shareholders will now be taxed as income in the hands of those shareholders. If you are tidying up or closing down an entity, ensuring shareholder loans are properly cleared or accounted for will be more important than ever.


Non-Resident Contractors Tax (NRCT) gets a modern overhaul

If you hire offshore contractors to help with projects, the Non-Resident Contractors Tax (NRCT) is getting its first major update since 2003. 

The proposed changes (set to apply from 1 April 2027) include:

A higher threshold: The monetary exemption threshold is rising significantly from a low $15,000 up to $75,000 in a 12-month period, adjusting for decades of inflation.

The "Single-Payer" view: Previously, you had to know about a contractor's activities with third parties to see if they breached thresholds. Now, you only need to consider your own contractual activity with them.

Low-risk exclusions: Overseas branches, limited partnerships, and representative offices with a good track record will be excluded from the regime entirely, saving them from having to constantly apply for exemptions.

Better admin: IRD is introducing a NRCT tax code to make tracking and filing smoother within the PAYE system.

This aims to reduce administrative friction for kiwi businesses leveraging international talent for smaller or short-term contracts.


If you hold offshore investments or shares (or if your business acts as a trustee), the FIF de minimis exemption threshold is doubling from $50,000 to $100,000 for individuals and trusts. This means fewer small-scale investors will fall into the complex FIF tax net. 

Additionally, a calculation method previously only available to new migrants (ensuring tax is only paid on realised gains and actual dividends) is being extended to all NZ taxpayers.


If your business currently relies on natural gas, there is a major new incentive to help you transition to cleaner energy alternatives. Under this newly announced scheme, the Crown will guarantee 80% of bank lending (up to a $50 million cap per loan) to support eligible businesses looking to reduce or eliminate their natural gas dependency.

To access these cheaper, government-backed loans, your business must currently consume at least 1,000 GJ of reticulated natural gas annually and achieve a gas savings reduction of at least 15%. The Budget has also allocated an extra $5.9 million to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) to help businesses map out their transition options.


Practical relief and tighter boundaries for Charities and Not-for-Profits

If you sit on the board of a grassroots sports club, manage a community group, or run a registered charity, Budget 2026 brings some of the most practical compliance relief seen in years, balanced by some sharp new integrity measures.

A 10x lift in the tax-free threshold: For taxable not-for-profits, the amount of net income you can earn before paying any income tax is being aggressively raised from a tiny $1,000 up to $10,000. This ensures small community groups aren’t dragged into complex filing regimes over minor earnings.

Locking in subscription rules: The Government explicitly confirmed that membership subscriptions and levies received by not-for-profits will remain entirely non-taxable, providing long-term certainty for clubs and associations.

Faster and ‘recyclable’ donation tax credits: To encourage charitable giving, donors will soon be able to claim in-year donation tax credit refunds rather than waiting for the end of the financial year. Even better, a new mechanism will allow donors to transfer their tax credit directly back to the charity, magnifying the value of their original gift.

Simplifying volunteer honoraria: In a massive payroll simplification win, NFPs will now be allowed to treat volunteer honoraria as standard salary or wages, clearing up decades of administrative confusion around the PAYE treatment of token payments.

To help fund these changes and close off structural loopholes, the Government is introducing three strict boundaries:

A new donation cap: There will now be a hard cap of $100,000 per year on donations made by an individual claiming a donation tax credit. This limits the maximum annual tax credit an individual can claim to $33,333.

Trust distributions under scrutiny: New integrity measures are being introduced to crack down on how trusts allocate income to tax-exempt beneficiaries.

No more exemptions for offshore charities: The tax exemption for non-resident charities is being completely removed, ensuring NZ tax benefits remain focused locally.


Budget 2026 isn't a landscape-shifting event for businesses, but rather a cleanup of the technicalities. The in-year R&D payments, relaxed FBT logbook rules, and streamlined NRCT regime are genuine wins for cash flow and admin reduction. Meanwhile, the Gas Transition scheme offers a practical, funded path for businesses looking to upgrade their infrastructure. On the flip side, the tighter rules around liquidated shareholder loans mean compliance needs to stay sharp.

To discuss how any of the budget measures are likely to impact your business, get in touch with your accountant.


Budget at a glance - overview of the 2026 budget from The Treasury NZ

Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill (No 3) - full commentary on tax-related proposals from Inland Revenue​

Inland Revenue Information Sheet for NRCT - the policy proposal for non-resident contractors' tax 

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Industry news

Ben Male has built, sold, and reinvented. Now, he's more excited about what's coming than anything he's done before.

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT  •  25 MAY 2026  •  3 MIN READ

It started, as many good things do, with a cousin and a half-baked idea. Back in 2015, Ben Male was pitched into the world of digital marketing almost by accident. His cousin was freelancing in search engine optimisation, Ben had a business idea, and the two started tinkering. Others joined. Ben found his feet in digital, and a direction he didn't know he was looking for.

Together, the pair co-founded Inbound, a HubSpot partner agency doing inbound and digital marketing. They bootstrapped it, figured things out on the fly, and ran it for four years before selling in 2019. It was the kind of formative chapter that looks obvious in hindsight but felt anything but at the time.

Then 2020 arrived. Ben briefly tried his hand at an Airbnb business, a venture that COVID made short work of. He regrouped, returned to digital, and started asking a different question: not just what kind of work he wanted to do, but what kind of life he wanted to build around it.

The answer was Team Empathy, founded in 2020 with what Ben calls a "chillpreneurship" ethos at its core. High-impact, high-value work. Delivered without being glued to a screen for twelve hours a day. Walk the dog. Walk the baby. Do good work and actually live your life. That philosophy hasn't changed. The work, however, has evolved considerably.

Team Empathy began as an SEO agency, helping local and sustainable businesses rank better on Google. It was solid, purposeful work. But then AI arrived and Ben's decade of search experience suddenly felt like the foundation for something far more interesting.

"I was starting to get a bit bored of SEO," he admits. "But AI has made it way more exciting because we're basically creating a new layer of the internet."

That new layer is what Ben calls Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO). Where SEO was about ranking on Google, AEO is about being found and recommended by AI agents. The shift is significant. These agents don't just search, they query, contextualise, and recommend. They know their user's demographics, preferences, and needs, and they're looking for businesses that can answer questions clearly and credibly. If your brand isn't visible to AI, it increasingly isn't visible at all.

Team Empathy is now an agency partner of AirOps, a New York-based platform that helps businesses build the infrastructure to show up in this new environment. The goal isn't to do the work for clients indefinitely, it's to install the system, transfer the knowledge, and hand over the keys. Ben's team brings in their own workflows, calibrates everything to the client's brand voice, trains the internal team, and within six to twelve months, the business owns it entirely.

The ideal client right now is a seven or eight-figure e-commerce company ready to stop guessing and start owning their narrative in an AI-driven world. It's a tighter focus than before and a deliberate one.

"We're providing AI transformation," Ben says. "And you need a system like this. The future of the internet lies here."

For someone who built, sold, and started again more than once, Ben Male has earned the right to say that with confidence. Team Empathy isn't chasing the next thing, it's leading it.

Team Empathy features in this Beany Business Spotlight. Celebrating the businesses that know where they've come from and exactly where they're going. 

Beany works with ambitious, forward-thinking businesses like Team Empathy, handling the numbers so founders can focus on what they do best.

You can find Ben and Team Empathy at teamempathy.co.nz

From side hustle to AI frontier: Team Empathy is just getting warmed up

Business spotlight

Discover how the impacts of global events show up in your numbers and what signals to monitor.

BUSINESS  •  18 MAY 2026  •  1 MIN READ

From increasing fuel costs to slower customer payments, global tensions are showing up in everyday business data. Here's what to look out for and how to respond.

What NZ businesses should watch as global tensions rise

New Zealand businesses are in a delicate position. The economy is still recovering from the downturn in 2024, which marked the country’s sharpest contraction since 1991. While sales activity began improving through 2025, based on the latest data from Xero, many businesses are still operating with tight margins and cautious demand.

At the same time, global tensions are beginning to push new pressures into the system. Fuel volatility, shipping disruptions, and shifting supply costs are early signs that international developments may once again influence local business conditions. 

For SME owners, the key question is about recognising the signals that may affect costs, demand, and cashflow in the months ahead.

In uncertain conditions, the most useful signals show up in everyday business data and operational changes. 

A few indicators that we recommend watching include: 

Cost pressures often appear first in supplier communications rather than economic reports. Businesses may start receiving notices about updated pricing, fuel surcharges, or revised freight costs. Rather than viewing these changes individually, it can help to track them collectively. 

If several suppliers begin adjusting prices within a short period, it often indicates broader cost pressure building upstream in the supply chain. 

When that happens, it may be worth reviewing a few things early: 

Whether current pricing still protects margins

Which cost increases can realistically be absorbed

Whether inventory purchasing or supplier mix should be adjusted

Spotting these patterns early can give you more time to plan before higher costs fully work their way into your financial results.

Fuel volatility tends to move through transport and logistics fast. Freight forwarders may revise rates or adjust schedules as shipping conditions change. Businesses that rely on imported goods or materials often see these shifts before they appear in official inflation data. 

If freight costs begin changing, it can be helpful to assess how exposed your business is to transport pricing. For example, how much of the product cost is tied to shipping, whether current freight assumptions in pricing still hold, and whether inventory planning should be adjusted to manage cost volatility. 

For some, even small changes in freight rates can significantly affect margins, particularly when goods are imported or move frequently through distribution networks. 

Monitoring these changes early can help business owners adjust purchasing or pricing decisions before higher transport costs begin showing up in financial results.

Monitoring customer demand remains critical in uncertain economic conditions. Changes in order volumes, booking activity, or sales cycles can provide early signals about changes in the broader economy. 

Rather than waiting for a clear drop in revenue, watch for more subtle changes, such as: 

Customers delaying purchases or extending decision timelines

Smaller order sizes or more cautious buying patterns

A shift toward lower-cost products or services

These usually appear gradually before they show up in monthly revenue figures. Recognising them early can help you adjust inventory, marketing activity, or cost planning before a slowdown becomes more visible in financial results. 

One of the earliest signs of economic pressure often appears in accounts receivable. If customers start taking longer to pay, it usually reflects tightening cashflow somewhere in the supply chain. This doesn’t always appear as outright late payments. Sometimes invoices simply sit longer before they are processed or approved. 

Looking at trends in receivables can reveal these changes early. If average payment times begin drifting upward across multiple customers, it may indicate that financial pressure is building within the wider community. 

In these situations, keeping a closer watch on outstanding invoices and projected inflows can help businesses avoid unexpected cashflow gaps. 

Turning uncertainty into better financial decisions

Periods of global uncertainty tend to expose weak spots in a business's financial structure. When costs move quickly or demand shifts unexpectedly, the businesses that respond faster are usually the ones with the clearest visibility over their numbers.

Here are a few practical steps that can help strengthen that visibility:

Rising costs don't always appear immediately in profit figures. Monitoring margins regularly helps identify when freight, supplier pricing, or operating costs are beginning to erode profitability. 

2. Update cashflow forecasts more frequently

Forecasts are most useful when they reflect current conditions. Updating projections regularly helps businesses anticipate potential pressure points rather than reacting once cashflow tightens.

When suppliers begin adjusting prices or adding surcharges, it can indicate broader cost pressures across the supply chain. Identifying these patterns early gives businesses more time to review pricing or purchasing decisions. 

In volatile environments, pricing models built on last year's cost structure may no longer hold. Periodically reassessing pricing assumptions helps protect margins. 

Changes in how quickly customers pay invoices can reveal early signs of financial stress across an industry. 

While global events are outside of your control, how quickly you see their impact on your business and respond to them isn't.

In uncertain times, financial visibility is especially important as it helps separate reactive decisions from informed ones.

At Beany, our accounting and advisory services can help clients gain insight and understanding from their numbers. If you're looking for a full-service accounting firm that helps with not only tax but can also provide regular CFO-level insights, book a free discovery call.

What New Zealand businesses should watch as global tensions rise

Business advice

Find out what can trigger an IRD audit and what reduces the risk of being on IRD's radar.

COMPLIANCE  •  18 MAY 2026  •  6 MIN READ

Find out how the IRD selects businesses for audit, what patterns trigger a review, and what business owners can do to reduce their risk.

How the IRD chooses businesses to audit

Most business owners assume an IRD audit happens because someone has done something wrong. 

In reality, audits are often the result of uncertainties or inconsistencies in the information a business reports. It’s very rarely a single issue that leads to an audit, but rather a lack of clarity in how the numbers fit together.

Understanding IRD’s selection process can help remove some of the uncertainty and reduce the stress that an audit can bring.

It can feel like audits happen out of nowhere, but the IRD generally selects businesses based on risk rather than at random.

Tax information is regularly assessed against risk indicators. The information filed with IRD is analysed and compared with what would normally be expected for businesses of a similar size, structure, and industry. Current figures may also be compared with previous filings to identify any unusual changes or inconsistencies. When something stands out, it can trigger a review.

Inland Revenue also regularly updates its compliance focus. This means certain industries, activities, or behaviours may be under closer scrutiny at different times.

If you’re selected for an audit, the IRD may not tell you exactly why you were selected. This is done to protect the integrity of their selection process.

Signals the IRD may look for in small and medium businesses

When Inland Revenue reviews a business, they are not looking for small mistakes. They are looking for patterns that don't make sense when compared with the information they hold. 

These patterns usually appear across your tax returns, bank activity, and reported income and expenses. 

Common signals that may attract IRD's attention include:

Spending that does not match reported income

Bank deposits that don't align with declared sales

Gross profit margins that sit well below industry norms

Regular cash jobs while materials and expenses are paid on credit

Using undeclared cash for personal expenses or asset purchases

Credit card use in places that don't match the nature of the business

Links to other people or businesses already under investigation

Transfers between personal and business accounts without clear explanation

On their own, any one of these may not mean much, but when several appear together, they can form a pattern that IRD's systems flag for further review.

Industry and compliance focus matters more than you think

Each year, the IRD sets specific compliance focus areas based on where they are seeing the highest levels of risk, error, or non-compliance across the country. These focus areas often relate to particular industries, business activities, or types of transactions. 

If your business operates in a sector that is currently under review, you may be more likely to be selected.

This is one of the reasons audits can feel unexpected. You may not have changed anything in your business, but IRD's focus may have shifted toward the type of work you do. 

The IRD periodically publishes information about its compliance focus, but many business owners aren't aware of it. Being in a focus industry doesn't mean you've done something wrong. It simply means your business sits in an area that the IRD is currently monitoring closely.

The IRD doesn't just look at the most recent return. Patterns such as late filings or payments, frequent corrections, or gaps in record-keeping can all contribute to how your business is viewed from a risk perspective.

If a business has previously been audited, required adjustments, or had ongoing difficulty meeting tax obligations, this history may influence how future returns are reviewed. This doesn't mean you are permanently flagged, but IRD considers past behaviour when assessing whether further scrutiny is warranted.

Many audits don’t start as a full investigation. Instead, it starts with what IRD calls a “risk review”. A risk review is generally handled through written requests and information gathering to evaluate the risk of non-compliance. In many cases, once they have the information they need, the review does not progress further.

You will usually receive reasonable notice when Inland Revenue begins a risk review or a formal audit. If you use a tax agent for the tax type being examined, IRD will typically contact them first. Both you and your agent will then receive written confirmation outlining what they intend to review and the expected timeframe. 

A formal audit is different. In certain situations, the IRD has the legal authority to visit business premises without prior notice. If this occurs, you are required to allow the IRD officer access to relevant records and systems. 

Understanding the difference between a review and an audit makes the process far less confronting. Many cases stop at clarification. Only when concerns remain unresolved does the IRD escalate the matter to a more formal audit.

The IRD approaches large enterprises differently from small and medium businesses, but the underlying principle is the same. They are looking for risk. 

Large enterprises are subject to ongoing risk assessment rather than one-off reviews. The IRD may monitor different parts of the business over time, including specific tax types, internal systems, and compliance processes. If a significant issue is identified, it may lead directly to a formal audit. Potential risks may also be scheduled for review at a later date. In some cases, targeted reviews of certain business areas or systems are carried out as part of Inland Revenues broader compliance plan. 

For smaller businesses, this process tends to happen in stages through risk reviews and data analysis. For large businesses, monitoring is more continuous.

Regardless of size, the IRD focuses its attention where risk signals are strongest.

One part of Inland Revenue's process that many business owners are unaware of is voluntary disclosure. If you realise there is an error in your tax affairs, you can tell IRD before they discover it themselves.

Making a voluntary disclosure can significantly reduce the penalties that would otherwise apply. It shows IRD that you are acting in good faith to correct a mistake rather than trying to avoid detection. 

Voluntary disclosure is still possible even after you've received notice that IRD intends to review or audit your business. The earlier you do this, the more favourable the outcome is likely to be. 

For businesses that suspect something in their records may not be quite right, addressing it proactively can make a substantial difference to how the situation is handled. 

What actually keeps you off the IRD's radar

While much of the discussion around audits focuses on what triggers IRD’s attention, it’s equally useful to understand what indicates low risk.

Businesses that present consistent, logical, and well-documented information across their returns are generally considered lower risk. When your reported income matches your bank activity, your expenses make sense for the type of work you do, and your profit margins sit within expected industry ranges, your numbers don't raise questions. 

Clear record-keeping also plays an important role. Being able to explain how figures were calculated and keeping business and personal finances separate helps create a consistent picture of how your business operates.

Filing and paying on time and responding promptly to any IRD communication also contribute to a stronger compliance history over time.

In most cases, IRD audits are triggered by patterns rather than a single mistake. Understanding how patterns are identified helps remove some of the mystery and highlights the importance of clear, consistent reporting.

For further information, view Inland Revenue’s official audit guide.

New IRD crypto reporting rules, what gets captured, and how to get your records in order. 

INDUSTRY NEWS  •  24 APRIL 2026  •  4 MIN READ

Changes for NZ crypto investors from 1 April 2026. New IRD reporting rules, what gets captured, and how to get your records in order.

2026 crypto reporting changes

The IRD has already identified around 227,000 cryptoasset users in NZ, linked to roughly 7 million transactions with a total value of about NZ$7.8 billion. This is now an established financial activity, not a niche edge case. 

From 1 April 2026, that activity moved into a more structured reporting system and a new era of transparency. While this isn't a change to how gains are taxed, what changes is how much the IRD can see and how consistently that information is captured.

The system being adopted is the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF), an OECD framework that is now being used across multiple countries for tracking and reporting on crypto activity.

From 1 April 2026, crypto platforms must begin collecting data that will be reported to the IRD. 

That data covers 3 key types of activity: 

Crypto to local currency transactions: Buying or selling crypto using New Zealand dollars.

Crypto-to-crypto trades: Swapping one asset for another, such as bitcoin for ethereum or stablecoins.

Transfer between wallets: Moving crypto between accounts or platforms where it meets reporting thresholds. 

The first reporting period runs from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, with reports due by 30 June 2027. While reporting happens later, the data capture starts from the beginning of the 26/27 financial year.

That information is then shared with the IRD and where relevant, exchanged with tax authorities in other participating countries. 

Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Providers (RCASPs)

On the platform side, Reporting Crypto-Asset Service Providers such as exchanges, brokers, and wallet providers are required to collect user information, track relevant transactions, and submit reports each year. They must also keep records for a set period and register for reporting through the IRD. 

For investors, this applies to anyone using those platforms, whether trading locally or through overseas exchanges. If you hold or transact crypto through a provider that falls under the framework, your activity can be captured and reported. 

It also extends beyond local New Zealand platforms. Information will be shared between tax authorities in participating countries, which means activity on overseas exchanges can still be reported back to the IRD if you are an NZ tax resident.

What happens if requirements aren’t met

Crypto platforms that fail to meet their reporting obligations can face fines for non-compliance. Meanwhile, investors who don’t provide the required information to those platforms can also be penalised. 

Beyond fixed penalties, the bigger risk sits in how reported data is used. If the IRD identifies gaps or inconsistencies between reported activity and tax returns that can lead to a reviews of prior years. 

Where adjustments are required, additional tax, interest, and penalties may apply depending on the circumstances. 

With reporting becoming more structured, now is the time to get your records in order:  

Pull together a complete transaction history across all platforms used: Include trades, swaps, and transfers, not just activity involving cash. 

Identify where disposal events may have occurred: Crypto-to-crypto traders are often missed but can still create tax positions. 

Check whether past reporting reflects actual activity: Gaps usually come from missing records or misunderstood transactions. 

Address incomplete or unclear records early: Reconstructing activity becomes harder once reporting data starts to build.  

The focus is simple. Make sure what's been reported in past returns (or will be reported in the future) reflects what actually happened.  

From here, the focus moves to whether your past crypto activity can be backed up. If trades, swaps, or transfers haven't been taxed properly, that becomes harder to ignore over time. It's not about a single transaction, but it's whether your full history can be explained and supported if it's ever looked at in detail.  

If you're unsure how your crypto activity should be treated, Beany can help you work through it and get everything into order.  

Miel Meyer on his family’s legacy, commitment to quality and what's churning for the next fifty years.

Business Spotlight •  13 April 2026  •  6 min read

We talk to Miel, CEO of Meyer Cheese, as he outlines his family’s legacy, commitment to quality and strategies for growth.

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