New Zealand's contribution to tax software is disproportionate to its size. Xero, founded in Wellington in 2006, became one of the world's largest cloud accounting platforms, and its Xero Tax module handles practice lodgment across New Zealand, Australia, and the UK. Its JAX assistant became an agentic AI platform in 2026 in partnership with OpenAI.
Hnry, also from Wellington, rethought sole trader tax entirely — every payment received is taxed at source, with income tax, GST, ACC levies and KiwiSaver deducted and filed automatically for roughly 1% of income. Afirmo covers similar ground for NZ small businesses with real-time GST and income tax positions filed with Inland Revenue.