Justice Centre | 19 Aitken Street
DX SX10088 | Wellington
T 04 918 8800 |
F 04 918 8820
[email address]
| www.justice.govt.nz
6 November 2025
Our Ref: 126382
John Smith
[FYI request #32209 email]
Tēnā koe John
Legal aid mileage-based travel disbursements – GST rates.
Thank you for your email of 30 September 2025 where you sought clarification on your
previous OIA 125640. Specifically, you requested:
The table has amounts including and excluding GST. IRD states the Kilometer
reimbursement rate is a reimbursement that doesn’t attract GST.
Can you confirm if the Ministry has been paying GST to lawyers on mileage
reimbursements?
Additionally my request asked for the “per kilometre reimbursement rate for each period”.
I can’t see that information in your reply. Can you please update the table to contain
this?
Lastly can I please expand my request to include the number of Lawyers who claimed
kilometre reimbursement for each period.
Your request has been referred to me for response, as it falls within my responsibilities as
Group Manager, National Service Delivery, and is being managed in accordance with the
provisions of the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
The Ministry uses the IRD-recommended rate to pay lawyers for mileage reimbursements,
which is inclusive of GST. For non-departmental Crown transactions, the Ministry does not
report or recover the GST component from the IRD, as these payments are made under the
Crown account.
In response to your request for the “per kilometre reimbursement rate for each period”, as
per my previous response, this information is publicly available on the Ministry’s website:
What’s New For Legal Aid Lawyers. For ease of reference, links to each mileage rate
change are provided below, including the What’s New article advising lawyers to claim
milage as a GST inclusive rate:
https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/lawyers-and-service-providers/legal-aid-
lawyers/whats-new/2021-archive/
• 1 August 2019 -
2019 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice - “Mileage rate
increasing to $0.79 per km for invoices received from 5 August 2019”
• 30 June 2021 -
2021 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice – “Mileage rate
decreasing to $0.79 per km (update)”
• 23 June 2022 -
2022 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice – “Mileage rate
increasing to $0.83 per km for invoices received from 1 July 2022”
• 18 May 2023 -
2023 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice – “Mileage rate
increasing to $0.95 per km for invoices received from 19 May 2023”
• 14 December 2023 -
2023 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice – “ Mileage
must be claimed as a GST inclusive
• 18 May 2023 - 8 August 2024 -
2024 archive | New Zealand Ministry of Justice –
“Reminder: Mileage rate increasing to $1.04 per km for invoices received from 12
August 2024”
• 26 June 2025 -
Whats New for lawyers providing Legal Aid | New Zealand Ministry of
Justice – “Reminder: Mileage rate increasing to $1.17 per km for invoices received
from 1 July 2025”
And finally, please see Table 1 (attached) for the total number of legal aid providers with
travel disbursements, between 1July 2019 to 30 June 2025.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Ministry website at:
Official Information Act Responses
If you are not satisfied with this response, you have the right to make a complaint to the
Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the Act. The Office of the Ombudsman may be
contacted by email to [email address] or by phone on 0800 802 602.
Nāku iti noa, nā,
Tracey Baguley
Group Manager, National Service Delivery
Table 1: Total number of legal aid providers with travel disbursements, between 1 July
2019 to 30 June 2025
2019/20
2020/21
2021/22
2022/23
2023/24
2024/25
Number of
legal aid
890
937
865
880
964
1,035
providers
Notes:
• This data is extracted from a live dataset that is used for operational purposes, meaning the
data will be updated with late data entry. Therefore, this data may differ to data reported
elsewhere with a different extraction date. These tables were extracted on 17 October 2025.
• This table provides a distinct count of all providers with approved disbursements.
