New Zealand Allows Remote Work for Visitors on Certain Visas

(NEW ZEALAND) — Immigration New Zealand now allows visitors who applied for a visitor visa on or after January 27, 2025 to work remotely for overseas employers, businesses or clients while in New Zealand.

The policy places no limit on the amount of remote work a visitor can perform while holding the visa, provided the work remains connected to an overseas business or client and does not enter the New Zealand labour market.

The immigration change is separate from a tax exemption introduced under the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2025–26, Compliance Simplification, and Remedial Measures) Act 2026. Inland Revenue’s amendments apply from April 1, 2026 to people who arrive in New Zealand on or after that date.

What Activities Are Permitted?

A visitor may answer emails, attend online meetings, write reports, code, test software or give presentations to colleagues outside New Zealand. Social media content can also fall within the permission when it does not promote a New Zealand business or person for gain or reward.

The permission does not create a separate digital nomad visa. Instead, New Zealand changed visitor visa conditions to allow eligible visitors to continue overseas work during their stay.

What Is Not Allowed

Work for a New Zealand employer is outside the permission. A visitor also cannot work with a New Zealand business or person in exchange for goods or services, or perform work that requires physical presence in New Zealand.

Someone who wants to take a local job or work with a New Zealand-based employer must apply for a visa that permits work in New Zealand. A visitor visa cannot be used to serve New Zealand clients, provide services to New Zealand businesses or accept assignments that depend on being physically present in the country.

Tax Rules: Separate Test Required

The tax rules use a separate test. Inland Revenue’s commentary says the exemption applies from April 1, 2026, and only to people who arrive in New Zealand on or after that date. A person who was physically present in New Zealand before April 1, 2026 cannot qualify as a non-resident visitor under the new rule.

The immigration question and the tax question therefore require separate checks. Permission to work remotely under a visitor visa does not automatically make the resulting income exempt from New Zealand tax.

Key Requirements for Non-Resident Visitors

A non-resident visitor must remain in New Zealand for 275 or fewer days in total in an 18-month period. Arrival and departure days count as whole days.

The person must be lawfully present in New Zealand, must not have been a New Zealand resident or transitional resident immediately before qualifying, and must be tax resident in a jurisdiction outside New Zealand or liable to tax elsewhere because of citizenship.

The 275-day threshold represents nine months and reflects the maximum presence typically granted under a general visitor visa. If a visitor exceeds the limit, the person no longer meets the non-resident visitor criteria and becomes a New Zealand resident prospectively from day 276.

That transition does not treat the person as resident for the earlier qualifying period. The day count still requires careful tracking because every arrival and departure day is included.

Work Must Remain Overseas-Linked

The work itself must remain overseas-linked. Inland Revenue’s rules exclude work for a New Zealand employer or a New Zealand branch of a foreign employer.

The exemption also does not cover selling goods or services for income from New Zealand businesses or people. Work in a New Zealand office or workplace is excluded, as is an assignment that makes physical presence in New Zealand necessary.

An employee of a U.S. company who works online while travelling through New Zealand may fit the rules. A consultant sent to attend meetings at a New Zealand workplace for a foreign company’s New Zealand project does not meet the same definition of remote work.

Tax Liability Requirements

Income from personal or professional services performed in New Zealand must also be liable to tax in another country or territory. The relevant jurisdiction can be the place where the person is tax resident or a country where the person is liable to tax because of citizenship.

The rule does not require tax to be paid in every case. Income can fall within a tax-free threshold or personal allowance, but it must remain liable to tax in the other jurisdiction.

That provision covers U.S. citizens and residents who remain subject to U.S. tax rules while visiting New Zealand. It also applies to visitors who retain tax residence in their home country during the trip.

Who Qualifies as a Worker?

Employees and contractors can qualify. The rules cover people working as employees for foreign employers and self-employed individuals operating as sole traders or through a company, partnership or another arrangement.

Freelancers, consultants, software developers, designers, writers, online marketers and founders of foreign companies can fall within the exemption when they serve non-resident employers or clients. The location of the employer or client remains central, regardless of the worker’s job title or business structure.

Exclusions and Special Cases

Public entertainers are excluded from the income tax exemptions for services income and business income. Performers and other public-facing income earners should not assume that ordinary remote-work treatment applies to money earned from public entertainment activities in New Zealand.

Local side work can also break the conditions. A visitor who arrives with overseas clients but later accepts a New Zealand project, a paid promotion or a sponsored stay can move outside the protected category.

Immigration New Zealand treats work with a New Zealand business or person in exchange for goods or services as outside remote work. That includes free accommodation provided in exchange for a review.

Influencers, travel writers and freelancers face particular risks when their content involves local businesses. A video about a New Zealand trip may qualify when no New Zealand business pays for it. A promotion for a New Zealand hotel, tour operator or brand raises a different issue.

Other Income and Family Considerations

The tax exemption also does not cover all New Zealand-source income. Interest paid to a non-resident visitor remains subject to non-resident withholding tax, and other New Zealand income can carry separate obligations.

Visitors must assess New Zealand bank interest, rental income, investments, local business income, property-related income and income from local services independently of their overseas remote work. The exemption is directed mainly at services income earned for overseas employers or clients.

Family assistance can affect eligibility as well. A non-resident visitor, or the person’s spouse, civil union partner or de facto partner, cannot receive Working for Families tax credits, including Best Start, while relying on the exemption.

Employer and GST Implications

The rules also address possible New Zealand tax consequences for overseas employers. Inland Revenue’s commentary says activities of a qualifying non-resident visitor are disregarded when determining whether a non-resident enterprise has a permanent establishment in New Zealand.

Employment-related relief can extend to payments covered by the exemption. Such payments are excluded from schedular payment rules, benefits received by a non-resident visitor employee are excluded from fringe benefit tax, and employer superannuation contribution tax does not apply to an employer superannuation cash contribution made for the visitor’s benefit.

Those protections apply while the person meets the non-resident visitor conditions. Once the visitor becomes resident, ordinary employment-related tax rules can apply to later payments.

Self-employed visitors must also examine GST. Qualifying non-resident visitors who provide certain zero-rated services to non-residents can choose not to register for GST when the services do not relate to land or movable personal property in New Zealand and the non-resident client remains outside New Zealand while the services are performed.

Before the amendment, a visitor providing more than NZD 60,000 of taxable supplies could have faced GST registration even when the services went to non-residents and generated no revenue benefit for New Zealand. Qualifying visitors can now ignore the value of those services when considering the registration threshold.

A visitor can still choose to register for GST if the usual criteria apply and the person wants to deduct input tax on New Zealand costs connected with the services.

Comparison with Transitional Resident Relief

The remote-work exemption is separate from New Zealand’s four-year transitional tax resident relief. Transitional resident relief applies to eligible new migrants and returning residents who become New Zealand tax residents. The visitor exemption is aimed at people who remain qualifying non-resident visitors for a limited stay and continue working for overseas employers or clients.

Someone moving to New Zealand permanently must assess tax residency, foreign income, foreign superannuation and New Zealand filing obligations under the rules that apply to residents. Visitor visa permission does not settle those questions.

Practical Examples

A four-month visit by a U.S. software engineer who works online for a U.S. employer can fit the exemption if the engineer remains lawfully present, remains tax resident or liable to tax elsewhere, avoids New Zealand clients and stays within the 275-day limit.

A freelance designer serving only overseas clients can also qualify if the non-resident visitor conditions are met and the income remains liable to tax outside New Zealand. A travel influencer who accepts free accommodation from a New Zealand hotel in exchange for a promotional video faces a different result because the arrangement involves a New Zealand business providing goods or services in exchange for promotion.

A consultant whose assignment requires attendance at a New Zealand workplace is not performing ordinary remote work. The physical-presence requirement places that work outside the non-resident visitor conditions.

Key Takeaways

New Zealand’s rules permit overseas remote work on many visitor visas, but the permission has defined boundaries. The employer or client must remain outside New Zealand, the work must not require a local physical presence, the visitor must arrive on or after April 1, 2026 to use the tax exemption, and the stay must remain within 275 days in an 18-month period.

Lawful immigration status, overseas tax liability, local client restrictions and the GST position all remain separate checks. A visitor who tracks those conditions can continue overseas work in New Zealand without treating a visitor visa as permission to enter the local labour market.