A new on-licence for a table service restaurant in New Zealand costs NZ$530 to apply and NZ$340 a year excluding GST, and Skai Solutions found the band that sets those fees turns on whether you have a separate bar.
The fees are national, set in regulation, and almost nobody publishes the thing that decides which of the five bands you land in. It is a points formula in regulation 5, and your premises type, your closing time and your enforcement record each feed into it. Every figure below is from the fee regulations or a council's published schedule, read on 28 October 2026.
Skai Solutions read the fee schedule rather than the council pages, because the council pages each publish one town's numbers and none of them answers the question an operator is actually asking. The fees sit in the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Fees) Regulations 2013, read on 28 October 2026, and regulation 18 says plainly that every amount in them is exclusive of goods and services tax. There are five bands, not one price:
| Fee category | Application | Annual | Auckland, incl GST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Very low | NZ$320 | NZ$140 | NZ$368 and NZ$161 |
| Low | NZ$530 | NZ$340 | NZ$609.50 and NZ$391 |
| Medium | NZ$710 | NZ$550 | NZ$816.50 and NZ$632.50 |
| High | NZ$890 | NZ$900 | NZ$1,023.50 and NZ$1,035 |
| Very high | NZ$1,050 | NZ$1,250 | NZ$1,207.50 and NZ$1,437.50 |
The first two columns are the statutory fees in regulation 7(1). The last column is Auckland Council's published schedule, read 3 September 2026, which is the statutory fee plus 15% GST and nothing else, so it is a fair guide to what you will actually be invoiced anywhere that has not set its own bylaw.
So the honest headline for a table service restaurant: about NZ$870 excluding GST in year one, being a NZ$530 application and a NZ$340 annual fee, and NZ$1,145 once you add the one manager's certificate you cannot trade without. That is NZ$1,316.75 including GST. This is a small number compared with the registration and verification fees on our food control plan cost page, and operators routinely budget it the wrong way round.
This is the part nobody explains, and it is the only part you can influence. Regulation 5(2) sets a cost/risk rating that is the sum of the highest applicable weighting from three separate tests. You do not pick your band. The band falls out of three facts about your venue.
Test one, what kind of premises you are. For an on-licence: a class 1 restaurant, a night club, a tavern or adult premises score 15. A class 2 restaurant, a hotel or a function centre score 10. A class 3 restaurant, or anything not otherwise specified, scores 5. A BYO restaurant, a theatre, a cinema or a winery cellar door scores 2.
Test two, how late you sell. For an on-licence, last sales at 2am or earlier score 0. Between 2.01am and 3am scores 3. After 3am scores 5.
Test three, enforcement holdings in the last 18 months. None scores 0. One scores 10. Two or more score 20.
Regulation 6(2) then turns the total into a band: 0 to 2 is very low, 3 to 5 is low, 6 to 15 is medium, 16 to 25 is high, and 26 or more is very high. Notice the shape of that. Test three can move you two bands on its own, and no amount of good behaviour elsewhere offsets it.
Everything turns on this and the regulations define it in terms of a bar, not in terms of food. Regulation 5(6), quoted rather than paraphrased because operators guess it wrong:
Read the ladder again as a cost decision. Table service only is 5 points. Putting in a counter people stand at and order from is 10. Letting that counter run like a public bar one night a week is 15. The judgement is the council's, not yours, and the phrase "in the opinion of the territorial authority" appears in all three definitions, which is why the fit out drawing you lodge matters as much as the words on your application.
Our arithmetic on the figures above, so you can follow it rather than take it. Substitute your own trading hours.
The lesson is not that a bar is a bad idea. It is that the licence fee is a recurring consequence of a design choice, and it belongs in the fit out budget rather than being discovered at renewal. Our cafe fit out cost page is written for Australia, but the principle that a layout decision prices your compliance for a decade is the same on both sides of the Tasman.
More than most operators expect, and this is the figure worth taping to the office wall. An enforcement holding is defined in regulation 5(6) as a holding under section 288 of the Act, or an old Sale of Liquor Act 1989 offence for which a holding could have been made.
Take the clean class 3 restaurant above, sitting on 5 points in the low band at NZ$340 a year. One holding adds 10. The total becomes 15, which is still inside the medium band, so the annual fee goes to NZ$550. That is NZ$210 more a year, about 62%, and on our reading of the 18 month window in regulation 5(5) it stays there until the holding is more than 18 months old.
Now the worst case, because it is arithmetic rather than scaremongering. A class 1 restaurant trading past 3am with two holdings is 15 plus 5 plus 20, which is 40, which is very high: NZ$1,050 and NZ$1,250 a year. That annual fee is about 3.7 times the NZ$340 the table service venue pays. Two thirds of the gap is the enforcement record, not the trading hours. The commonest holdings in hospitality come from service to minors, and the rules on who may be where in a licensed venue are on our minors on licensed premises page.
Three fees that are not the licence and are missed in most first year budgets. All are statutory and all exclude GST.
Almost, but not quite, and the exception is written into the regulations rather than being a local quirk. Regulation 7(2) lets a territorial authority set its own fees by bylaw, which then replace the national amounts. Most have not, which is why Auckland's schedule is simply the statutory figure plus GST.
So the practical rule: use the table above to budget, then check your own council's fees and charges page for a bylaw before you sign anything. The same caution applies to food registration, where councils genuinely do diverge and the spread is wide, as our food control plan cost page shows with published figures.
An honest answer by category rather than an encouragement. If alcohol is incidental to your offer, say a cafe that would sell a dozen glasses of wine a week, the arithmetic above is not the question to ask. A BYO licence sits at 2 points and the very low band, NZ$320 to apply and NZ$140 a year, and for many cafes that is the right buy. The BYO rules differ by country and ours are written for Australia on the BYO licence rules page, but the fee logic in New Zealand is the one above.
And if you have an enforcement holding inside the last 18 months, the honest advice is to get your house in order first rather than to apply and absorb a 62% higher annual fee for the rest of the window. Neither of those conclusions sells anything. Both are what the regulations say.
Here is the part an operator feels rather than reads. The licence fee is a known number you pay once a year. The cost of a duty manager who is on the floor at 7pm, hands full, while the phone rings with a table of eight for Saturday, is not known and nobody invoices you for it.
Skai Solutions answers the phone for Australian and New Zealand venues so that the call still gets taken while your certificated manager does the job the licence requires. Hours, location, bookings and the obvious menu questions are handled without anybody leaving the floor. New Zealand pricing is on our NZ pricing page. Setup takes five days.
How much does a liquor licence cost in NZ?
A new on-licence costs between NZ$320 and NZ$1,050 to apply for, plus an annual fee of NZ$140 to NZ$1,250, all excluding GST, under regulation 7(1) of the Sale and Supply of Alcohol (Fees) Regulations 2013. Which end you pay is decided by a points formula, not by negotiation. A table service restaurant on a clean record sits in the low band at NZ$530 and NZ$340.
How do I get a liquor license in NZ and what decides the fee?
You apply to your territorial authority, and the fee band falls out of regulation 5. Your premises type, your latest alcohol sales time and your enforcement holdings in the last 18 months each contribute points, the highest applicable weighting from each test is added together, and regulation 6(2) converts the total into one of five bands from very low to very high.
What is the difference between a class 1, 2 and 3 restaurant?
The separate bar. Regulation 5(6) defines a class 3 restaurant as one that only serves alcohol to the table and has no separate bar area, which scores 5 points. A class 2 restaurant has a separate bar but never runs it like a tavern, which scores 10. A class 1 restaurant has a significant separate bar and runs it like a tavern at least one night a week, which scores 15.
How much more does an on-licence cost if I put in a bar?
On our arithmetic from the statutory fees, a table service restaurant closing at 11pm scores 5 points and sits in the low band at NZ$530 to apply and NZ$340 a year. Adding a separate bar makes it a class 2 restaurant at 10 points and medium band, so NZ$710 and NZ$550. That is about 34% more to apply and about 62% more every year.
What does an enforcement holding do to my annual licence fee?
One holding adds 10 points to your cost/risk rating and two or more add 20, under regulation 5(5), counted over the last 18 months. For a low band restaurant on 5 points, one holding lifts the total to 15 and the annual fee from NZ$340 to NZ$550, about 62% more. It is the single largest thing an operator controls in the whole formula.
How much is a manager's certificate in New Zealand?
NZ$275 excluding GST under regulation 11(1), which is NZ$316.25 including GST on Auckland Council's published schedule. Regulation 11(3) requires NZ$25 of each new or renewed certificate fee to be passed to the licensing authority. The certificate is personal to the holder rather than attached to the venue.
Are New Zealand alcohol licence fees the same in every council?
Mostly. The amounts are set nationally in the fee regulations, but regulation 7(2) lets a territorial authority set its own fees by bylaw, which then replace the national ones. Most councils have not done so, which is why Auckland Council's schedule is the statutory fee plus 15% GST. Check your own council's fees page before budgeting.
What does a special licence cost for a one off event?
Under regulations 9 and 10 it depends on how many events and how big. A class 3 special licence, being one or two small events, is NZ$55. Class 2, being three to twelve small events or one to three medium ones, is NZ$180. Class 1, being a large event or more than three medium ones, is NZ$500. Large means more than 400 people, medium 100 to 400 and small under 100.