New Zealand Self-Employed Tax Checklist 2025/26
Use this comprehensive checklist to make sure you have everything ready before filing your Inland Revenue self-assessment for 2025/26. Covers allowable expense categories, record-keeping requirements, and key deadlines.
Allowable Expense Categories
- Business Income (Gross income from self-employment) — turnover
- Other Business Income (Other income) — otherIncome
- Cost of Sales (Cost of goods sold) — costOfGoods
- Motor Vehicle & Travel (Motor vehicle expenses) — travel
- Rent & Occupancy (Rent and rates) — rentRatesPower
- Repairs & Maintenance (Repairs and maintenance) — repairs
- Office & Admin Costs (Other expenses) — officeCosts
- Professional Fees (Accounting & Legal) (Accountant and legal fees) — professionalFees
- Bank & Interest Charges (Interest and bank charges) — bankCharges
- Advertising & Marketing (Advertising and promotion) — advertising
- Other Business Expenses (Other expenses) — otherExpenses
- Personal / Excluded (N/A) — personal
Pre-Filing Checklist
- Gather all bank statements for the tax year
- Categorise all income and expenses
- Separate personal and business transactions
- Check for any unclaimed allowable expenses
- Calculate total income and total expenses
- Review estimated tax liability
- Set aside funds for tax payment
- File before the Inland Revenue deadline