Fees Payable to the Registrar of Limited Partnerships
Issue
22. Under the Bill, the Companies Office is required to maintain registers of limited partnerships and of overseas limited partnerships carrying on business in New Zealand. New Zealand limited partnerships are formed on registration with the Companies Office and overseas limited partnerships are also required to be registered with the Companies Office if they carry on business in New Zealand. The Bill requires registered limited partnerships to file an annual return with the Companies Office.2
23. The Companies Office operates its registers according to the principle of cost recovery and it is intended that the costs of maintaining the registers be recovered through fees. In order to recoup the cost of maintaining the registers of limited partnerships and overseas limited partnerships, fees need to potentially be charged for:
- Applications by potential limited partnerships to be registered (or by overseas limited partnerships to be registered);
- The filing of annual returns; and
- The provision of certified copies of documents held on the Register.
The proposed fees
24. Consistent with the principle of cost recovery, it is proposed to charge the fees set out in the following table in relation to the registers of limited partnerships and overseas limited partnerships:
| Type of Transaction |
Registers of Limited partnerships and overseas limited partnerships |
| Application to be registered |
$270.00 (incl. GST) |
| Filing of annual return |
No fee |
| Request for certified copy of document held on the register |
$25.00 (incl. GST) |
Comment on the proposed fees
25. The fees have been set at a rate designed to do no more than recover the costs of maintaining the register, and at rates that are comparable with those charged for equivalent transactions involving other registers maintained by the Companies Office.
26. In calculating the fee for an application to register limited partnership, the cost of undertaking the registration process (on a time/cost basis), as well as the ongoing maintenance of a limited partnership's registration, have both been taken into account.
27. It is proposed that there will no fee for filing the annual returns required under the Bill. Rather, the application fee would represent a one-off fee for the life of the limited partnership. We believe that this will result in a reduction in compliance costs for the limited partnership, as well as efficiencies derived from avoiding the need to administer and collect annual fees.
28. The fee for provision of a certified copy of a document held on the Register is consistent with that charged for the provision of certified copies of documents from several other registers maintained by the Companies Office (including the registers of companies, motor vehicle dealers and personal property securities).
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