What to know
Little of what a visitor pays is set by the seller. A conservation and tourism levy is charged with the visa or travel authority applied for before flying, not at the border. The Commerce Commission says every business should offer at least one surcharge-free way to pay.
Goods and services tax has been 15 per cent since 1 October 2010, when the Taxation (Budget Measures) Act 2010 raised it from 12.5 per cent. Inland Revenue's guide for visitors, IR294, is blunt about who pays it: a visitor pays goods and services tax on anything bought in New Zealand in the same way a resident does, with no exemption for being a visitor. It records no refund on departure, and says goods the buyer carries out still bear the full 15 per cent.
What a card costs the shop to accept is capped by statute. The Retail Payment System Act 2022 set the first interchange fee limits, in force 13 November 2022, and the Commerce Commission replaced them with an interchange fee network standard. That standard reached domestically issued cards on 1 December 2025 and foreign-issued cards, an Australian visitor's included, on 1 May 2026. For a visitor that caps the surcharge too, since the Commission says a surcharge should cover only that extra cost.
The levy itself carries a fixed price. Regulation 26AAD of the Immigration (Visa, Entry Permission, and Related Matters) Regulations 2010 imposes an International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy of 100 New Zealand dollars, a figure it reached on 1 October 2024. Immigration New Zealand collects it with a visa or electronic travel authority fee and does not refund it. An Australian Resident Visa or a New Zealand resident visa lifts it as an Australian or New Zealand passport does, and a passenger transiting Auckland International Airport is outside it.
The suitcase has a ceiling of its own, set in the Tariff. Concession reference number 81 admits a passenger's checked baggage worth up to 700 New Zealand dollars free of duty. The Tariff (Concessions) Amendment Order 1998 substituted that concession from 6 August 1998, and no order since has moved it. New Zealand Customs, in guidance updated 9 July 2025, reads it as covering goods bought overseas and duty-free there, and says travelling companions cannot pool their concessions.
Concession 82 covers alcohol and tobacco, and opens only at 17, an age the same 1998 Order set. Part II of the Working Tariff Document, printed by New Zealand Customs, allows either 4.5 litres of wine or 4.5 litres of beer, and three containers of spirits or liqueur of up to 1,125 millilitres each. The Tariff (Concession) Amendment Order 2007 raised that count from one on 1 September 2007, and the Tariff (Concessions) Amendment Order 2014 cut tobacco to 50 cigarettes or 50 grams on 1 November 2014. The volumes themselves come from the Tariff's own text, which no order here has moved, so no commencement can be given for them. Duty and the same 15 per cent apply above any of them.
Heading off with a card? Read how to choose a travel money card - including why you should always pay in the local currency, not Australian dollars.
Working out what the trip costs? Put your daily spend and trip length through the travel budget calculator, or convert a single amount with the currency converter.