Treasury Instructions 2009

Published 1 Jul 2009
Amended 9 Sep 2009
Page Updated 10 Sep 2009

Treasury Instructions are issued under Section 80 of the Public Finance Act 1989.

Treasury Instructions was extensively revised as from 1 July 2007 as a result of the adoption of New Zealand International Financial Reporting Standards into generally accepted accounting practice from that date.

Treasury Circulars in areas of public sector financial management also need to be referred to as appropriate. In particular, see Treasury Circular 2009/10 - Clarification of Return of Suplus Calculation which relates to updates made to section 4.4.3 on 9 September 2009: tc-2009-08.pdf (133 KB).

Browse section/chapter	Download/Page range
1 Introduction to Treasury Instructions 1.1 General 1.2 Date of issue 1.3 Structure of Treasury Instructions 1.4 Application of Treasury Instructions 1.5 Access to Treasury Instructions 1.6 Review of Treasury Instructions 1.7 Relationship between Treasury Instructions and Treasury Circulars 2 Principles for the development of accounting policies for external financial reporting 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Legislative requirements 2.3 New Zealand generally accepted accounting practice 2.3.1 Asserting compliance with NZ GAAP 2.3.2 Objectives of general purpose financial reporting 2.3.3 Assumptions underlying general purpose financial reports 2.3.4 Qualitative characteristics of external financial reports 2.3.5 Materiality 2.3.6 Financial elements 2.4 Accounting policies 3 Accounting policies for external financial reporting by the Government of New Zealand 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Reporting entity 3.2.1 Public benefit entity 3.3 General accounting policies 3.4 Judgements and estimations 3.5 Specific accounting policies 3.5.1 Reporting and forecast period 3.5.2 Basis of combination 3.5.3 Income 3.5.4 Expenses 3.5.5 Foreign-currency 3.5.6 Financial Instruments 3.5.7 Inventories 3.5.8 Property, plant and equipment 3.5.9 Biological assets 3.5.10 Intangible assets 3.5.11 Non-current assets held for sale and discontinued operations 3.5.12 Investment property 3.5.13 Employee benefits 3.5.14 Insurance contracts 3.5.15 Leases 3.5.16 Other liabilities and provisions 3.5.17 Contingent assets and contingent liabilities 3.5.18 Commitments 3.5.19 Comparatives 3.5.20 Institutional analysis 3.5.21 Related parties 4 Accounting and forecasting policy parameters for departmental external financial reporting 4.1 Explanatory note 4.2 Particular accounting policies: General 4.2.1 Statement of Responsibility 4.2.2 Combination of sub-entities 4.2.3 Goods and Services Tax 4.3 Particular accounting policies: Statement of Financial Performance items 4.3.1 Revenue 4.3.2 Capital charge 4.4 Particular accounting policies: Statement of Financial Position items 4.4.1 Property, plant and equipment 4.4.2 Intangible assets 4.4.3 Provision for return of operating surplus 4.4.4 Liability for capital withdrawals 4.4.5 Commitments 4.5 Forecasting Policies 4.5.1 General forecasting policies 4.5.2 Forecasting policies for financial assets and liabilities 4.5.3 Forecasting policies for derivatives 4.5.4 Forecasting policies for property plant and equipment 4.5.5 Other forecasting policies 5 Operating instructions: Cost accounting policy parameters 5.1 Disclosing cost accounting policies 5.2 Documenting cost accounting policies 5.3 Classifying direct and indirect costs 5.4 Bases and methods of assigning costs to outputs 5.4.1 Introduction 5.4.2 Assigning expenses 5.4.3 Attributing direct costs 5.4.4 Allocating indirect costs 5.4.5 Pre-established rates 5.5 Consistency in applying cost accounting policies 5.5.1 Introduction 5.5.2 Consistency 5.5.3 Changes in cost accounting policies 5.6 Departmental other expenses 5.6.1 Introduction 5.6.2 Loss on sale of assets 5.6.3 Asset devaluations 5.6.4 Restructuring expenses 5.6.5 Disclosure of other expenses 5.6.6 Summary 5.7 Definition of terms 6 Operating instructions applying to departments as defined in the Public Finance Act 1989 6.1 Financial responsibility of Chief Executives 6.2 Reporting obligations 6.2.1 Annual financial statements of departments 6.2.2 Provision of reports to Ministers 6.2.3 Provision of reports to the Treasury 6.2.4 Compliance with accounting and forecasting policies 6.2.5 Provision of other information 6.3 Departmental revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities 6.3.1 Managing departmental expenditure 6.3.2 Expenditure requiring Minister of Finance approval 6.3.3 Foreign exchange exposure management 6.3.4 Departmental insurance and risk management 6.3.5 Prohibition on investing, borrowing or lending 6.3.6 Memorandum accounts 6.4 Crown revenue, expenditure, assets and liabilities 6.4.1 Definition of Crown 6.4.2 Authority to operate Crown bank accounts 6.4.3 Collection of Crown revenue 6.4.4 Disbursement of Crown expenditure 6.4.5 Management of Crown assets 6.4.6 Management of Crown liabilities 6.4.7 Provision of information to Treasury 6.5 Banking 6.5.1 Introduction 6.5.2 Bank accounts 6.5.3 Departmental bank accounts 6.5.4 New Zealand dollar Crown bank accounts 6.5.5 Foreign currency Crown bank accounts 6.5.6 Foreign currency holdings in departmental and Crown bank accounts 6.5.7 Power of Minister or the Treasury in relation to Crown or departmental bank accounts 6.5.8 Cash payment schedule 6.5.9 Investment of public money 6.6 Trust money 6.6.1 Legislative provisions 6.6.2 Notice of appointment 6.6.3 Accounting for trust money 6.6.4 Internal control and trust money 6.6.5 Reporting of trust money 6.6.6 Records of trust money 6.6.7 Trust bank accounts 6.6.8 Investment of trust money 6.6.9 Taxation 6.6.10 Definition of terms 6.7 Contingent liabilities 6.7.1 Introduction 6.7.2 Contingent liability types 6.7.3 Register of contingent liabilities 6.7.4 Certification by Minister 6.7.5 Power to give guarantees	trsy-instruc-09-v2.pdf (230 KB) pp. 72

Browse section/chapter

Download/Page range

1 Introduction to Treasury Instructions

2 Principles for the development of accounting policies for external financial reporting

3 Accounting policies for external financial reporting by the Government of New Zealand

4 Accounting and forecasting policy parameters for departmental external financial reporting

5 Operating instructions: Cost accounting policy parameters

6 Operating instructions applying to departments as defined in the Public Finance Act 1989

trsy-instruc-09-v2.pdf (230 KB) pp. 72

Page top

Publication Details