The short version
In New Zealand your employer takes three or four things out of each pay before it reaches your bank account: PAYE (income tax plus the ACC earners’ levy), your KiwiSaver contribution if you’re a member, and student loan repayments if you have a loan. There is no tax-free threshold, so take-home pay depends mainly on your salary, your tax code and your KiwiSaver rate.
On a $70,000 salary paid fortnightly, on tax code M with 3.5% KiwiSaver, you take home $2,042.50 a fortnight, or $53,105 a year.
$2,042.50
- Take-home per year
- $53,105
- Gross pay per year
- $70,000
- PAYE income tax per year
- $13,220
- ACC earners' levy per year
- $1,225
- KiwiSaver per year
- $2,450
- Student loan per year
- $0
- Total deductions per year
- $16,895
- Employer KiwiSaver after ESCT per year
- $1,717
- Deductions as % of pay
- 24.1%
- Your employer also pays 3.5% into your KiwiSaver ($2,450 a year), less employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT) at 30%: $1,717 reaches your account. This is on top of your pay.
- Figures follow Inland Revenue's 2026–27 PAYE method and match the IR340/IR341 tables. Your end-of-year tax can differ slightly if your pay changes during the year.
Take-home pay: $2,042.50 a fortnight from $70,000 a year (2026–27)
Show the breakdown
| Line | Year | Month | Fortnight | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $70,000 | $5,833 | $2,692 | $1,346 |
| PAYE income tax | −$13,220 | −$1,102 | −$508 | −$254 |
| ACC earners' levyDeducted with PAYE | −$1,225 | −$102 | −$47 | −$24 |
| KiwiSaver (3.5%) | −$2,450 | −$204 | −$94 | −$47 |
| Take-home pay | $53,105 | $4,425 | $2,043 | $1,021 |
- Take-home pay$53,10576%
- PAYE income tax$13,22019%
- ACC earners' levy$1,2252%
- KiwiSaver$2,4503%
The 2026–27 tax year
New Zealand’s tax year runs from 1 April to 31 March, so the 2026–27 year (Inland Revenue calls it the 2027 tax year) covers pay from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. Three things changed from 1 April 2026:
- The ACC earners’ levy went up to 1.75% of earnings, up from last year, with a higher earnings cap.Inland Revenue
- The default KiwiSaver rate rose to 3.5% for both employees and employers.Inland Revenue
- Employer KiwiSaver contributions now start at age 16, the same age as the government contribution.Inland Revenue
The income tax rates themselves did not change: the thresholds that took effect on 31 July 2024 apply for the whole year. The student loan repayment threshold also stays at $24,128.
Income tax rates
New Zealand taxes income in bands, and each rate applies only to the income inside its band.Inland Revenue
| Income for the year | Rate on that part |
|---|---|
| Up to $15,600 | 10.5% |
| $15,600 to $53,500 | 17.5% |
| $53,500 to $78,100 | 30% |
| $78,100 to $180,000 | 33% |
| Over $180,000 | 39% |
So income tax on $70,000 is $13,220.50 for the year. Earning more never leaves you worse off, because only the dollars above a threshold are taxed at the higher rate. On $70,000 your marginal rate is 30%, but your overall rate including the ACC levy is 20.6%. The NZ tax brackets guide explains the bands in more detail.
How PAYE comes out of each pay
PAYE (“pay as you earn”) is the income tax your employer deducts and pays to Inland Revenue for you. Inland Revenue publishes the exact method payroll software must follow, and prints the IR340 (weekly and fortnightly) and IR341 (four-weekly and monthly) tables from it.Inland Revenue
For a main job the method is:
- Multiply one pay by the number of pays in the year and drop the cents. That’s your income “as if” you earned this pay all year.
- Work out a full year’s income tax on that figure, add the ACC earners’ levy, and subtract the independent earner tax credit if you’re on tax code ME.
- Turn that into a weekly amount, cut to whole cents. For fortnightly, four-weekly or monthly pay, the weekly figure is scaled up to the length of the pay period.
Because each pay is taxed as if it were your regular pay, a one-off big pay (for example, lots of overtime) has more tax taken from it, and bonuses use separate “extra pay” rules. If your pay changes during the year, Inland Revenue squares up the difference after 31 March.
Tax codes: M, ME, SL and the secondary codes
You tell your employer your tax code on the IR330 tax code declaration when you start a job. The main ones:
- M: your main or only job.
- ME: your main job, if you qualify for the independent earner tax credit (IETC). It’s worth $520 a year for income from $24,000 to $66,000, tapering away by $70,000. You can’t use it if you or your partner get Working for Families, or you get an income-tested benefit, NZ Super or a Veteran’s Pension.Inland Revenue
- SL added to any code if you have a student loan (M SL, ME SL, S SL…).
- Secondary codes for any other job: SB, S, SH, ST or SA, chosen by your expected total income from all jobs. Each takes a flat rate from every pay: the tax rate for that income band plus the ACC levy. The NZ tax brackets guide has the full table.
The ME code makes a visible difference. On $52,000 a year paid weekly, take-home pay is $803.50 a week on ME against $793.50 on M.
The ACC earners’ levy
The ACC earners’ levy funds cover for injuries that happen outside work. It’s 1.75% of your earnings for 2026–27, stopping at earnings of $156,641, so the most anyone pays is $2,741.22. It’s collected inside PAYE, so your payslip normally shows one PAYE figure that already includes it. On $70,000 the levy comes to $1,225 over the year.
Inland Revenue has already published a higher rate for 2027–28, so expect slightly lower take-home pay from April 2027 if nothing else changes.
KiwiSaver: now 3.5%
If you’re a KiwiSaver member, your employer deducts your chosen rate of your gross pay: 3.5% (the new default), 4%, 6%, 8% or 10%. If the rise is hard to manage, you can apply to Inland Revenue for a temporary rate reduction that keeps you at the old rate of 3% for a set period of up to a year. The default for employees and employers is scheduled to rise again from 1 April 2028.Inland Revenue
KiwiSaver comes out of your pay after tax is worked out on your full gross pay, so a higher rate lowers your take-home pay dollar for dollar. On $70,000, moving from 3.5% to 6% changes fortnightly take-home pay from $2,042.50 to $1,975.20.
The government adds $0.25 for every dollar you contribute between 1 July and 30 June, up to $260.72 a year. To get the maximum you need to contribute $1,042.86 of your own money in that year. It’s not paid if your taxable income is over $180,000.Inland Revenue
The KiwiSaver calculator adds up all three sources. Our guide to KiwiSaver contributions in 2026–27 explains each one, including ESCT.
Student loan repayments
With an SL tax code, your employer deducts 12% of every dollar of each pay over the pay-period threshold: $464 a week, $928 a fortnight or $2,010.66 a month. On a second job it’s 12% of all your pay from that job.Inland Revenue
On a $60,000 salary paid fortnightly that’s $165.48 a pay, or $4,302 a year. Loans are interest-free while you’re based in New Zealand, so all of it reduces your balance. The student loan calculator shows how long your loan will take to clear, and NZ student loan repayments in 2026–27 covers second jobs, holiday work and extra repayments.
Take-home pay at different salaries
All figures below are for 2026–27, tax code M, 3.5% KiwiSaver, no student loan, paid fortnightly. For weekly pay and more salaries, see take-home pay at common salaries.
| Salary | Take-home a fortnight | Take-home a year | PAYE income tax a year | ACC levy a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $40,000 | $1,230.48 | $31,992 | $5,908 | $700 |
| $55,000 | $1,668.95 | $43,393 | $8,720 | $962 |
| $70,000 | $2,042.50 | $53,105 | $13,220 | $1,225 |
| $85,000 | $2,408.11 | $62,611 | $17,927 | $1,487 |
| $100,000 | $2,764.36 | $71,873 | $22,877 | $1,750 |
| $150,000 | $3,951.85 | $102,748 | $39,377 | $2,625 |
| $200,000 | $5,122.36 | $133,181 | $57,078 | $2,741 |
Here is the full breakdown for $70,000, each column worked out with Inland Revenue’s method for that pay period:
| Line | Year | Month | Fortnight | Week |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pay | $70,000 | $5,833 | $2,692 | $1,346 |
| PAYE income tax | -$13,220 | -$1,102 | -$508 | -$254 |
| ACC earners' levy | -$1,225 | -$102 | -$47 | -$24 |
| KiwiSaver (3.5%) | -$2,450 | -$204 | -$94 | -$47 |
| Take-home pay | $53,105 | $4,425 | $2,043 | $1,021 |
If you’re paid by the hour, the calculator converts your rate: $30 an hour for 40 hours a week is $926.61 a week after PAYE and 3.5% KiwiSaver.
What your employer pays on top
If you’re in KiwiSaver, your employer must contribute at least 3.5% of your gross pay on top of your salary. Only if your employment agreement is negotiated so that the contribution is offset against your gross pay does it reduce your take-home pay.Inland Revenue Employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT) is taken out of that contribution first, at a rate set by your salary plus employer contributions: from 10.5% up to 39%. On $70,000 the employer’s contribution adds $1,717 a year to your KiwiSaver after ESCT.
Second jobs and self-employment
A second job is taxed at a flat rate from each pay, set by the secondary code you choose. The code should match your estimated total income from all jobs for the year, not just the second job. For example, if your main job pays $60,000 and a weekend job pays $10,000, your total of $70,000 falls in the SH band, so the second job uses SH and has 30% tax plus the ACC levy taken from every pay. Choosing a lower code to keep more of each pay usually just means a bill after 31 March.Inland Revenue
On a weekend job paying $10,000 a year on code SH, take-home pay is $131.35 a week. If you have a student loan, a second job repays 12% of all its pay, because your main job has already used the repayment threshold.
If you’re self-employed, no PAYE is deducted: you pay income tax at the same rates on your profit through your tax return, and later through provisional tax. The NZ income tax calculator shows the yearly figure.
A payslip checklist
- Tax code. Is it right for this job? M for your main job, ME only if you qualify for the IETC, a secondary code for any other job, plus SL if you have a student loan. An “ND” code means your employer has no declaration from you and deducts tax at the much higher non-declaration rate, so fill in an IR330 straight away.Inland Revenue
- Gross pay. Includes any taxable allowances, overtime and regular bonuses for the period.
- PAYE. Compare it with the PAYE calculator for the same gross pay and pay frequency; it should match to the cent for a regular pay.
- KiwiSaver. Your rate × gross pay. Check the employer contribution and ESCT too.
- Student loan. 12% of the pay above the threshold for your main job.
- Anything else (child support, payroll giving, union fees, salary sacrifice) should match something you or Inland Revenue arranged.
If you run a business, you’ll also want the GST calculator for adding or removing GST at 15%, and the company tax calculator for the 28% company rate and imputation credits. GST in New Zealand and NZ company tax and imputation explain both.
Figures in this guide are calculated live from Inland Revenue’s 2026–27 rates and update if those rates change. They are estimates for regular pay and are not tax advice.
