What you need to do before you reregister
Quick guide
Reregister now
You must reregister under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 before 5 April 2026 (Easter Sunday). If you don’t, you will not be able to continue operating as an incorporated society.
To reregister you will need to:
- Prepare a constitution and review your society’s operational processes.
- Hold a general meeting to approve the new constitution and the decision to reregister.
- Apply to reregister and upload your constitution online on our website.
Preparing a constitution and reviewing processes may take time. We recommend you start this process soon and complete all 3 steps before the end of March 2026.
After 5 April 2026 (Easter Sunday) all incorporated societies must be registered under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 (2022 Act). If you do not reregister by this date, your society will be removed from the register on 6 April 2026 and will no longer legally exist.
The Companies Office has created a quick guide on how to get ready for reregistering. It also covers the steps to take if your society chooses not to reregister. You can read this quick guide, or the full guide below.
Quick guide — Getting reregistering sorted [PDF, 237 KB]
Quick guide — Getting reregistering sorted [HTML version]
1. Prepare a constitution
Your society must have a constitution that complies with the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 (2022 Act). A constitution is a set of rules.
Your constitution must contain certain information, such as:
- Why your society exists — what its purpose is.
- How someone becomes a member and the conditions of membership.
- The details of your society’s committee and its roles, functions, powers, and procedures.
- How your society will hold general meetings, make decisions, and elect or appoint officers.
- The procedures for resolving disputes.
Preparing your constitution may take some time. Your society’s committee may need to meet to ensure the constitution is suitable, before presenting it to members.
2. Review your operational processes
Make sure your operational processes will comply with the 2022 Act.
You must have processes for:
- Ensuring new members give their consent to being a member.
- Recording all the details required in your register of members.
- Getting and storing the written consent for each new officer to act as an officer.
- Disclosing and recording any conflicts of interest — if you do not already have this, your committee will need to create an ‘Interests Register’.
- Preparing your financial statements to the appropriate standards — you may need to capture individual transactions in a different way that makes it easy to create the required financial statements.
- Managing internal disputes in a way that is consistent with natural justice.
3. Hold a general meeting
You will need to hold a general meeting where your members:
- Formally agree to reregister under the 2022 Act.
- Approve the constitution.
- Decide who the officers will be — your society’s committee plus any other officers it may need. There must be at least three people on the committee.
- Decide who the contact person will be — there must be at least one and no more than three.
- The contact person’s details are only for the Registrar to use.
At your meeting get a signed consent from every officer. Your chosen officers must consent in writing to be an officer and certify they are not disqualified. This template can help you collect an officer’s consent and certification. It also collects the information you will need to add your officers to the register when you reregister online.
Template IS22-CCO – Consent and certificate of officer PDF, 112 KB
4. Check latest financial statements have been filed
Incorporated societies must file a copy of their financial statements with the Companies Office each year, unless registered with Charities Services.
Before you reregister online make sure you have filed your latest financial statements with us. Once you have reregistered you cannot file financial statements online under the 1908 Act.
5. Gather key information and documents
To reregister your society you must complete an online application form.
You will need to provide the following information as part of your application:
- A copy of your society’s constitution.
- Contact details for your society including the registered office address, addresses for communication, and details of at least 1 contact person.
- Details of committee members and other officers — including their name, physical address, email address, and start date.
Click here: How to apply to reregister your society
Source: https://is-register.companiesoffice.govt.nz/law-changes-for-societies/get-ready-for-reregistering/
Disclaimer
Unfortunately, with details changing all the time and at such speed, we need to add that the above content is correct at the time of writing as far as the author is aware and is very much subject to change. We have, to the best of our ability, acknowledged any shared content. All related links provided to the corresponding websites are subject to change as they are live links.
