Overseas companies trading motor vehicles in New Zealand

Who this applies to

An overseas company is a company that is incorporated outside New Zealand. If an overseas company is trading in motor vehicles in New Zealand, they must comply with the rules of the Motor Vehicle Sales Act 2003.

There are two ways they can do this:

• incorporate in New Zealand
• trade through a New Zealand registered motor vehicle trader.

Incorporate in New Zealand

If a company is incorporated in New Zealand it can register as motor vehicle trader here. An existing overseas company can either set up a subsidiary company in New Zealand or transfer its incorporation to New Zealand.

If the company doesn't want to do either of these, but still wants to trade in motor vehicles, they must trade through a registered motor vehicle trader in New Zealand.

Set up subsidiary company in New Zealand

A wholly-owned New Zealand subsidiary is a company controlled by a holding company. All the shares in the subsidiary company are held by the overseas company. The subsidiary company is then registered as a New Zealand company on the New Zealand Companies Register.

Registering your company to do business in New Zealand – Companies Office website(external link)

Transfer incorporation to New Zealand

An overseas company can also transfer its incorporation to the New Zealand Companies Register. If it does this, it must give up its incorporation in the other country.

How to transfer incorporation to New Zealand – Companies Office website(external link)