Since the new Act was passed, most advisors have been waiting to hear from the Government as to when the regulations might be passed.
Whilst it is advisable to start the process to review your Society’s constitution now because of the process and time involved, it is not recommended you finalise them and register them until the regulations are available.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment released a consultation document on the proposed Regulations in October 2022 calling for submissions.
The submissions closed on 22 November 2022.
There is a now a waiting game to see when those regulations might be passed.
It is not envisaged that they will be passed until late 2023.
Re-registration under the Incorporated Societies Act 2022 will not be available under October 2023.
Therefore there will be a two and half year window from that date to April 2026 for Incorporated Societies to re-register.
Although this might appear like an ample amount of time, as we have warned in previous newsletters, we recommend getting on top of it now, so as to avoid the bottle neck that will inevitably occur in April 2026.
The regulations that are proposed to be passed under the new Act may include the following:
- Prescribed information that must be included in certain circumstances when dealing with the Registrar such as on re-registration or when filing a return;
- Prescribing the manner in which things must be done in those circumstances.
- How conflicts must be managed
- How and where documents may be served on a society
- What forms must be used by a society when foiling information to go on the register
- Whether officers who are prohibited in an overseas jurisdiction should also be prohibited in New Zealand
- Prescribing what societies should provide audited accounts
These are just some of the proposed Regulations
We recommend undertaking the review of your Society’s constitution now.
Take this opportunity of either amending or re-writing your constitution. The latter option gives you the ability to work from a blank page to ensure that your constitution is fit for purpose.
We further recommend that you then leave it in draft until the regulations are available so that any final amendments can be made to ensure that it is compliant with those regulations before applying to re-register using that new constitution.
It is a long process and starting now will keep you ahead of everyone else.
