Help to prepare for the law changes

From October 2023 your society will be able to apply for reregistration under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 (the new Act). Between now and then, we’ll provide information and resources to help you understand what’s changing and to help your society prepare.

On this page:

• Create or review your dispute resolution processes
• Review the way members join your society
• Updating your rules
• Learn about the new financial reporting requirements
• How you can stay up to date

Create or review your dispute resolution processes

Many societies don't have any documented processes for dealing with internal disputes. The new law will make it mandatory to document your dispute resolution processes in your rules (constitution). Before updating your rules, you will need to decide what that process will look like for your society.

Schedule 2 of the new Act contains a set of dispute resolution procedures societies may choose to adopt. If your society includes these procedures in your rules, they will be guaranteed to comply with the new Act.

The Government Centre for Dispute Resolution - a part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment - provides additional guidance on what good dispute resolution looks like that some societies may find useful:

Review the way members join your society

Members will need to consent to becoming a member of your society under the new Act. To avoid disagreements about whether someone has consented, we recommend societies have processes to ask for, and record, consents.

In most cases societies will already meet this requirement and there is no reason why you can't check now to make sure it does.

Updating your rules

What you can do if you're creating or updating your rules now

Even though law changes are coming, if your society wants to update its rules now those rules must still comply with the current 1908 Act. This means your rules must cover things such as the control and use of the common seal and your society’s name must end with the word ‘Incorporated’.  

There are some provisions in the new legislation you can also choose to include now. These are rules that are not required by the 1908 Act but will become mandatory under the new 2022 Act — for example, dispute resolution clauses, and requiring people to consent to becoming a member.

Our Constitution Builder tool can help

If you need to review your rules now, you might want to use our Constitution Builder tool to help prepare a draft. The current version of this tool complies with the 1908 Act and includes some optional clauses that will also comply with the new 2022 Act.

Use our Constitution Builder tool

You will need to review your rules after October to reregister

Reregistration starts in October 2023 and runs through to April 2026. To reregister your society under the new 2022 Act, you will need to review its rules to make sure they comply with the 2022 Act — even if you have made changes quite recently. This is because for some rules, the requirements of the 2022 Act are different than the 1908 Act.

Your society might also need to make some rule changes – either to add new rules or change some existing ones (for example, your society may need to add rules that are required under the 2022 Act - such as dispute resolution clauses. Your society could also then choose to remove the clause requiring it to have a common seal as a common seal is not a requirement of the 2022 Act).

Later this year we will update the Constitution Builder

We will update the Constitution Builder later in the year so that it can be used to help your society draft a constitution that fully complies with the new 2022 Act.

Learn about the new financial reporting requirements

For many societies the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 will change how the prepare their financial statements. 

From October 2023, once a society reregisters, it will have to start using External Reporting Board (XRB) accounting standards in its financial statements, unless it qualifies as a ‘small society’.

In August 2022 we hosted  a webinar about these changes. We've published a recording of the webinar along with the slides and answers to questions asked during the webinar. We are working with the XRB to provide templates along with detailed guidance to help your society comply with the new reporting standards.

New financial reporting requirements

How you can stay up to date

We will update the information here on our website throughout the transition period. You can also choose to receive updates from us directly to your inbox. Alternatively, you can follow us on Facebook.

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If you have any questions or comments about these law changes, you can email us at engage@societies.govt.nz.

Published 18 May 2022, updated 16 March 2023