Incorporated Societies Act 2022

Incorporation of societies - Application for incorporation

12: Registrar must refuse incorporation if Registrar considers that purposes do not comply with Act

You could also call this:

"The Registrar says no to a society if its goals don't follow the law."

Illustration for Incorporated Societies Act 2022

You want to start a society, but the Registrar checks if your purposes are okay. The Registrar looks at your proposed purposes to see if they include something unlawful or doing the society for members' financial gain. You can learn more about financial gain in subpart 2 of Part 3. You need to change your purposes if the Registrar is not satisfied. The Registrar will not let you incorporate your society until you make the changes. The changes must fix the issue to the Registrar's satisfaction.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS100867.

This page was last updated on 4 January 2026 — View changes

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11: Registrar must refuse incorporation if name of society does not comply with requirements, or

"The Registrar says no to a society's name if it's not allowed by law."

13: Registrar must refuse incorporation if Registrar considers that constitution does not comply with Act, or

"The Registrar says no to a society if its rules don't follow the law."

Part 2Incorporation of societies
Application for incorporation

12Registrar must refuse incorporation if Registrar considers that purposes do not comply with Act

This section applies if the Registrar considers that the proposed purposes of a society include—
an unlawful purpose; or
a purpose of carrying on the society for the financial gain of any of its members (see subpart 2 of Part 3).

The Registrar must refuse to incorporate the society until the purposes are amended to address (to the Registrar’s satisfaction) the matter.