New Zealand Withholding tax rates
New Zealand Withholding tax rates: no single figure applies. The reason is set out below, cited to the governing instrument. Last checked against the official source on 11 Aug 2026.
New Zealand's non-resident withholding tax (NRWT) on dividends, interest and royalties paid to non-residents, each at its domestic statutory rate before any double-tax agreement relief, plus the approved issuer levy (AIL) - the 2% levy a borrower can pay instead of deducting NRWT on interest to non-associated foreign lenders. Administered by Inland Revenue (IRD).
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| Current value | structured — see the API |
|---|---|
| In force from | — |
| Official source | Inland Revenue, NRWT payer's guide IR291 (March 2026): 'The rates at which NRPI is taxed are: Interest 15%, Royalties 15%, Dividends 30%. The exception is investment society dividends, which are treated as interest and taxed at 15%.' IRD 'Deduct NRWT at the right rate': where no DTA applies the rates are '15% for interest and royalties' and '30% for dividends'. |
| Last verified | 2026-08-11 |
| Verification | primary — No verification limitation recorded — read from the official source cited. |
| Provenance | source fingerprint |
What this value means
THERE IS NO SINGLE WITHHOLDING TAX RATE, WHICH IS WHY value IS NULL. New Zealand taxes non-resident passive income (NRPI) at two different NRWT rates, dividends carry exemptions of their own, and interest has a statutory ALTERNATIVE - the 2% approved issuer levy - that replaces NRWT entirely when elected. A caller wanting a number must name which payment type; read withholding_rates rather than expecting a headline figure. ALL RATES ARE DOMESTIC STATUTORY RATES, BEFORE TREATY RELIEF. New Zealand's double-tax agreements typically reduce dividends to 15% (5% or 0% for large holdings), interest to 10% and royalties to 10%. We do NOT serve treaty rates: they are bilateral, run to thousands of country pairs, and applying one is a legal determination rather than a lookup. DIVIDEND VARIANTS IN DOMESTIC LAW: fully imputed dividends paid to a non-portfolio shareholder (direct voting interest above 10%) have been EXEMPT from NRWT since 1 February 2010 (IR291: 'Dividends paid to non-resident persons that are non-portfolio shareholders (direct voting interest above 10%) from 1 February 2010 that are also fully imputed or under a double tax agreement are exempt from tax'). Fully imputed dividends to smaller (portfolio) shareholders attract a reduced 15% rate under the Income Tax Act 2007 NRWT rules; IR291 states the 30% headline and the non-portfolio exemption but does not itself print the 15% fully-imputed-portfolio figure, so treat that variant with secondary confidence. NO SERIES effective_from IS ASSERTED: IRD states the current rates without commencement dates and we do not supply them from memory. RATES RE-VERIFIED, NO CHANGE. The IR291 URL previously cited had 404'd because Inland Revenue reorganised its forms-and-guides paths (the guide now sits under .../forms-and-guides/ir200---ir299/ir291/ir291.pdf, which is the path the series-level source already uses and which still resolves). The document itself was not withdrawn and the rates were not changed: the current edition, IR291 March 2026, still states 'Interest 15% Royalties 15% Dividends* 30%', and IRD's 'Deduct NRWT at the right rate' page still gives '15% for interest and royalties' and '30% for dividends' where no double tax agreement applies. The approved issuer levy is likewise unchanged at 2%. THE APPROVED ISSUER LEVY IS NOT AN INCOME TAX ACT WITHHOLDING. It is imposed by a different statute: Part 6B of the Stamp and Cheque Duties Act 1971 (ss 86F-86L), not by the NRWT rules in Part R of the Income Tax Act 2007. Section 86J sets the levy at '2 cents for every $1 of the leviable value of the registered security', and s 86F defines leviable value as the amount of the interest payment, giving 2% of interest. The two regimes interlock through s 86I of the Stamp and Cheque Duties Act, which provides that for the purposes of the NRWT rules a payment of interest is treated as paid by an approved issuer only where the levy has been paid on the leviable value 'at the rate specified in section 86J' and by the date specified in s 86K or s 86KA - which is what reduces the NRWT on that interest to zero. The levy is borne by the payer, not withheld from the lender, so it is a levy rather than a withholding tax and should not be presented as an NRWT rate. Section 86IB provides for a zero rate of AIL for qualifying (widely held) bonds, and s 86IC sets out when payment of the levy is compulsory.
Get it programmatically
curl https://ausref.dev/v1/nz/withholding-tax
# $0.005 per call — x402 on Base (USDC). No key, no signup.
# History: curl https://ausref.dev/v1/nz/withholding-tax/history?from=2020-01-01
# Provenance: curl https://ausref.dev/provenance/nz/withholding-taxOther New Zealand series: Official Cash Rate (OCR) · Interest on money claims (prescribed rate) · Goods and Services Tax (GST) · VAT registration threshold · Adult minimum wage · Public holidays · Consumers price index · Company income tax rate · Personal income tax rates · Statutory social-insurance contributions
The same figure elsewhere: Papua New Guinea · Samoa · Solomon Islands · Tonga · Vanuatu · all 8