A self-employed creator in New Zealand must register for GST once turnover from a taxable activity reached $60,000 in the last 12 months or is expected to reach $60,000 in the next 12, and must also register if they add GST to their prices, under Inland Revenue's Registering for GST rules; below that, registering is your choice. Turnover means sales, not profit, and once registered you file returns, keep supply records and, under IRD's page on charging GST, add 15% to most local sales, while some services supplied to people outside New Zealand can be charged at 0%.
What IRD counts as turnover for a creator
GST only applies to a taxable activity, which IRD's guide GST - do you need to register? (IR365) describes as an activity carried on continuously or regularly that supplies goods or services to someone else for consideration, not necessarily for profit, and which excludes hobbies, private recreation and wages. Interpretation statement IS 21/08 confirms that creators make supplies: posting a video on a platform can be a supply of a service to that platform, and promoting a product is a supply to the company behind it.
The same IR365 guide defines turnover as the total value of taxable supplies across all your business activities, including grants, subsidies and barter transactions, excluding GST, and stresses that expenses are not deducted. For a creator that means platform payouts, brand fees, affiliate commissions, merchandise and digital product sales all go into one rolling total, and products received in exchange for posts belong in it too because they are barter. IRD's glossary repeats the point that turnover is not profit. Our New Zealand creator tax overview has an income map you can reuse as the starting list.
IS 21/08 includes a useful example of a parent blogger with $5,000 a year of social media income and $10,000 of merchandise sales: because her supplies do not exceed the threshold in any 12-month period, she is not required to register and chooses not to. The decision is yours below the line, but only if you are watching the line.
Registration decision tree
Work through these questions at the end of every month while you are unregistered. The order follows the IR365 flowchart, with the creator-specific questions added at the points where they usually arise.
- Is this a taxable activity? If you post occasionally with no regular supplies to platforms, brands or buyers, IRD says you cannot register. If you supply content or promotion regularly for reward, continue.
- Do you show GST on invoices or tell customers they are paying it? If yes, IRD requires you to register whatever your turnover, so fix your invoices or register now.
- Look back 12 months. Add every taxable supply for the last 12 months, including barter at value. If the total has reached the threshold on the registration page, you must register.
- Look forward 12 months. Forecast the next 12 months from signed deals, platform trends and planned launches. If you expect to reach the threshold, you must register even though past sales were lower.
- Check the overseas share. If much of the total comes from overseas platforms or brands, ask your adviser how those supplies are classified before you rely on them being left out, because the IR365 definition counts taxable supplies and IRD treats zero-rated supplies as supplies taxed at 0%.
- Below both lines? Registration is voluntary. Weigh IRD's own advantages and disadvantages, listed below, and decide whether claiming GST on equipment outweighs adding GST to local prices.
- Register in myIR. Choose an accounting basis and filing frequency at the same time. IRD can backdate a start date only in exceptional circumstances, so do not wait for a quiet month.
Supply-type table: local brands, overseas platforms and overseas buyers
Once you are registered, the question becomes whether each sale carries 15% or 0%. The zero-rating rows below are starting points only and should be confirmed with a tax adviser against your actual contracts.
| Who you supply | Likely starting point | Confirm with your adviser |
|---|---|---|
| A New Zealand brand paying for sponsored posts or a campaign | Standard-rated, so GST is added to your fee | That your quote states whether it includes or excludes GST |
| Buyers in New Zealand purchasing presets, courses or merchandise from your own shop | Standard-rated, as IRD's zero-rating page describes for online sales to people in New Zealand | How your checkout shows GST to local buyers |
| An overseas platform paying you for content or a revenue share | Possibly zero-rated as a service supplied to a non-resident outside New Zealand | Which entity your platform agreement is with, and whether anyone receives the service in New Zealand |
| An overseas brand paying for content shown to its New Zealand audience | Uncertain: section 11A(2) can remove zero-rating where performance is received here by another person | Who receives the promotion in New Zealand and whether they are GST-registered |
| Overseas buyers of remote services or digital content from your site | Zero-rated if you can show they are not New Zealand residents | That your checkout captures two of IRD's accepted evidence types |
| Work physically performed while you are overseas, such as an event appearance abroad | Zero-rated as a service performed outside New Zealand | Where each part of the job was actually performed |
| Products or trips received instead of a fee | A barter supply that counts towards turnover | How to value the item and whether GST is due on your side of the swap |
The sources behind those rows are IRD's zero-rated supplies page, which covers services supplied to non-residents outside New Zealand, remote services backed by any 2 pieces of residency evidence such as billing address, IP address, bank details or SIM country code, and services performed outside New Zealand, and section 11A of the GST Act 1985. Subsection (2) switches off zero-rating where it is reasonably foreseeable that the services will be received in New Zealand by another person, such as the overseas company's employees, and that person will not receive them in the course of making taxable or exempt supplies. That is the clause that makes sponsored content for an overseas brand aimed at New Zealand viewers a question for an adviser rather than a rule of thumb.
Filing frequency, accounting basis and due dates
IRD's page on choosing an accounting basis and filing frequency makes the payments basis available if your total sales are $2 million or less, so you account for GST when money actually moves, which suits creators whose brand invoices are paid late. The invoice basis is open to anyone, and IRD notes the hybrid basis is uncommon for small businesses because of its cash flow effect.
- Monthly filing is open to anyone, suits people expecting regular refunds, and is compulsory above $24 million of sales, according to the same page.
- Two-monthly filing is available below $24 million and should align with your balance date, which for a 31 March balance date means periods ending in odd months.
- Six-monthly filing is limited to sales under $500,000, with periods ending 30 September and 31 March for a standard balance date.
- Due dates. IRD's page on filing and paying GST puts each return on the 28th of the month after the period ends, except 7 May for periods ending 31 March and 15 January for periods ending 30 November, and says no extensions are given and nil returns are still required.
Filing frequency also affects income tax. Monthly or two-monthly GST filers may qualify for the ratio option for provisional tax, and IRD's standard option page says six-monthly filers on that option pay 2 instalments instead of 3; our provisional tax guide works through both.
Invoices, records and equipment once you are registered
The old tax invoice has become “taxable supply information”. IRD's page on how taxable supply information works says you must provide it to a GST-registered buyer within 28 days of a request for supplies over $200, and that invoices, bank statements, contracts and agreements can together support your return. The details depend on value: up to $200 you need your name, the date, a description and the price; above $200 add your GST number and the GST amounts; above $1,000 add a GST-registered buyer's name and an identifier such as an address, email or NZBN. Brands asking for a “tax invoice” still get what they need from a document with those fields.
Cameras, laptops and lighting are often used privately too. IRD's page on GST adjustments for business and private use lets you treat purchases of $10,000 or less under a principal purpose method, claiming all or none depending on the main purpose, or an apportionment method that you must then use for at least 24 months; items over $10,000 are claimed on a fair and reasonable business-use percentage, a home office can be measured by floor area, and a vehicle by logbook. Records still need to be kept for 7 years under IRD's general income and expense record rules.
Voluntary registration in IRD's own terms
IRD's page on registering voluntarily allows registration below $60,000 and sets out a short list of trade-offs worth reading before you decide.
- In favour: it can keep your paperwork in order, lets you claim GST on expenses for the activity, and may make dealing with suppliers easier.
- Against: you add GST to prices, file returns on a schedule, and pay penalties for late returns or payments.
- For creators specifically: a mostly overseas income mix with large local equipment purchases leans one way; a mostly local fan base buying direct leans the other, because those buyers cannot claim back the GST you add.
Where official wording differs
- At least, more than, over or exceeds. The current registration page says at least $60,000, the April 2023 IR365 flowchart asks whether turnover is more than $60,000, IRD's self-employed summary says over $60,000, and IS 21/08 says exceeds. Treat the registration page as the operative statement and register at the line, not past it.
- Before expenses. IRD's schedular payments page phrases the test as $60,000 a year or more before expenses, which is a reminder rather than a different rule.
- Proposals are not law. RNZ reported in August 2026 an election proposal to lift the compulsory threshold to $80,000. Until legislation changes it, IRD's page is the rule.
Limitations of this New Zealand GST guide
This page summarises IRD guidance and the GST Act as checked on 1 October 2026 for a New Zealand sole trader, and it cannot see the contracts that decide who receives your services and where. Zero-rating for overseas platforms and brands in particular turns on facts that general guidance cannot settle, so get a tax adviser or chartered accountant to classify your income streams before you file a first return that relies on 0% supplies. GST groups, companies, look-through companies and land transactions are outside its scope, and Australian creators should use our Australian GST guide instead because the rules and threshold differ.