Income Tax Calculator NZ
A full PAYE breakdown, income tax, ACC levy, KiwiSaver, and student loan, not just a single number. Updated for the 2026/27 tax year.
How your income tax is calculated (bracket by bracket)
| Bracket | Rate | Taxed in this bracket | Tax |
|---|
This calculator provides estimates for the 2026/27 NZ tax year for planning purposes only and does not constitute tax advice. It doesn’t account for tax credits, secondary tax codes, or individual circumstances. For your exact position, check with Inland Revenue or a qualified tax professional. See our full disclaimer.
Most income tax calculators show you one number and stop there. This one shows you the full picture: the exact bracket-by-bracket breakdown of your income tax, your ACC earner’s levy, the effect of KiwiSaver contributions, and student loan repayments, all in one place, whether you’re an employee or self-employed. Enter your income above to see exactly where your money goes and what you actually take home.
How New Zealand income tax actually works
New Zealand uses a progressive tax system with five brackets. This means your income isn’t taxed at a single flat rate, only the portion of your income that falls within each bracket is taxed at that bracket’s rate. This is one of the most commonly misunderstood parts of the NZ tax system, so it’s worth working through a real example.
Here are the current income tax brackets for the 2026/27 tax year (1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027):
| Income range | Tax rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $15,600 | 10.5% |
| $15,600 – $53,500 | 17.5% |
| $53,500 – $78,100 | 30% |
| $78,100 – $180,000 | 33% |
| $180,000+ | 39% |
Take someone earning $70,000 a year as an example. They don’t pay 30% on the full $70,000, even though $70,000 falls within the 30% bracket. Instead:
- The first $15,600 is taxed at 10.5% = $1,638
- The next portion, $15,600 to $53,500 ($37,900), is taxed at 17.5% = $6,632.50
- The remaining $16,500 (from $53,500 to $70,000) is taxed at 30% = $4,950
Total income tax: $13,220.50, giving an effective (average) tax rate of about 18.9%, even though their top marginal rate is 30%. This gap between your marginal rate (the rate on your next dollar earned) and your effective rate (your actual average rate across all your income) is exactly why a pay rise or bonus is never “taxed away”, you always keep the majority of any additional income.
What this calculator includes that most others don’t
A number of calculators, including our own previous version of this tool, only calculate income tax in isolation. That’s not what actually comes out of your pay. This version includes:
ACC earner’s levy
Every person earning salary, wages, or self-employment income in New Zealand pays the ACC earner’s levy, it funds New Zealand’s no-fault accident compensation scheme and there’s no opting out. For the 2026/27 tax year, the rate is 1.75% of your income, up to a maximum liable earnings cap of $156,641, meaning the most anyone pays is $2,741.22 a year regardless of how much they earn above that. For employees, it’s deducted automatically alongside PAYE. Self-employed people pay the same rate but are invoiced separately by ACC based on their IR3 return, rather than having it withheld from each payment.
KiwiSaver contributions
If you’re contributing to KiwiSaver, that percentage comes out of your pay before you see it, and it’s easy to forget how much that adds up to alongside tax. Select your contribution rate in the calculator to see the real combined effect on your take-home pay. For the full current rules on contribution rates and the government contribution, see our 2026 KiwiSaver guide.
Student loan repayments
If you have a student loan, IRD deducts 12% of everything you earn above the annual repayment threshold of $24,128 (for the 2025/26 and 2026/27 years). This is a compulsory repayment, not optional, and it stacks on top of income tax and ACC, so it meaningfully affects take-home pay for anyone still repaying a loan. Note that if this is your secondary job, the full 12% typically applies from the first dollar earned in that job rather than only above the threshold, since the threshold is applied once across your combined income, not per job.
Employee vs self-employed: the tax mechanics differ
The tax rates themselves are identical whether you’re an employee or self-employed, but how and when you actually pay is completely different, which is why this calculator lets you toggle between the two.
If you’re an employee (PAYE)
Your employer calculates and deducts income tax, ACC levy, KiwiSaver, and student loan repayments automatically from every payslip, using the PAYE (Pay As You Earn) system. You never see this money to begin with, which is why most employees don’t think about tax obligations until they check a payslip or file an end-of-year return.
If you’re self-employed or a sole trader
Nothing is automatically withheld. You’re responsible for setting aside enough to cover your income tax and ACC levy yourself. In practice, this usually means paying provisional tax, instalments of estimated tax paid throughout the year rather than one lump sum at year-end, based on your prior year’s income or a current estimate. ACC invoices your earner’s levy separately, generally once a year, based on the income declared on your IR3 return. Because nothing is deducted automatically, many self-employed people set aside 25-30% of every payment they receive into a separate account specifically for tax, so they’re not caught short when a provisional tax instalment or invoice arrives.
Secondary income and secondary tax codes
If you have more than one job, tax on your secondary job is usually withheld at a higher flat rate (a secondary tax code, such as SB, S, SH, or ST depending on your combined income) rather than spreading the tax-free-equivalent lower brackets across both jobs. This often means more tax is withheld from your secondary job than will actually be owed.
Here’s the part that trips people up: your total tax liability for the year is still calculated on your combined income from all sources, using the same progressive brackets shown above, regardless of which job withheld what. If your secondary job over-withholds relative to your true combined tax position, you’re typically entitled to a refund when you file your end-of-year return (or IRD auto-calculates it for most PAYE-only earners). This calculator estimates your total annual tax position based on combined income, which is the number that actually matters for your real tax liability, rather than showing you a secondary-tax-code withholding rate that overstates what you’ll actually owe overall.
Rental income and other non-salary income
Rental income isn’t taxed separately or at a special rate, it gets added to your other income and taxed at your normal marginal rates shown above, after deducting allowable expenses (rates, insurance, interest, repairs, and property management fees, among others). If you’re earning $70,000 from employment and $15,000 in net rental income, your income tax is calculated on the combined $85,000, not as two separate calculations. You can use this calculator with your total combined income to get an accurate estimate, entering employment income plus net rental income (after expenses) as a single figure.
Business and company income tax
This calculator is built for personal income tax, which applies to sole traders (since sole trader income is personal income, not company income) and PAYE employees. If you operate through a limited company, company income is taxed separately at a flat 28% company tax rate rather than the progressive personal brackets shown here, and there are separate rules for how you then draw income from the company as salary or dividends. For guidance on this and other business tax obligations, see our guide on how much business tax costs in NZ.
Checking this against IRD’s own tools
Inland Revenue provides its own PAYE calculator, and it’s worth cross-checking any estimate against it, especially for anything you’re relying on for a real financial decision. The advantage of this calculator is seeing income tax, ACC levy, KiwiSaver, and student loan repayments together in one breakdown, which IRD’s individual tools don’t combine as directly. For anything beyond an estimate, particularly complex situations like multiple income sources, overseas income, or significant deductions, IRD or a registered tax agent remains the authoritative source.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does this calculator include ACC levy and KiwiSaver, or just income tax?
Both, along with student loan repayments if applicable. Income tax is shown separately in the breakdown, but the net take-home figure accounts for all four: income tax, ACC earner’s levy, your selected KiwiSaver rate, and student loan repayments if you have one.
How is secondary income tax calculated?
Your secondary job typically withholds tax at a higher flat rate to avoid under-taxing your combined income, but your actual total tax liability is based on your combined income from all jobs using the standard progressive brackets. If too much was withheld from your secondary job, you’re generally entitled to a refund at year-end.
Can self-employed people and sole traders use this calculator?
Yes, switch to the Self-employed / Sole trader tab. The tax brackets and ACC levy rate are identical to employees, the difference is in how you pay: through provisional tax instalments and a separate ACC invoice, rather than automatic PAYE deductions.
Does this show my income tax refund?
Not directly. This calculator estimates what you owe in tax on a given income, it doesn’t calculate a refund, since refunds depend on how much was actually withheld across the year compared to what you actually owed, which varies by individual circumstances, tax codes used, and any income changes during the year.
Is rental income taxed differently to salary?
No, rental income (after deducting allowable expenses) is added to your other income and taxed at the same progressive rates. There’s no separate “rental income tax rate” in New Zealand, it’s simply combined with your total taxable income.
Is this calculator up to date for the current tax year?
Yes, this reflects the 2026/27 tax year rates (1 April 2026 – 31 March 2027): the current income tax brackets, the 1.75% ACC earner’s levy rate with the $156,641 cap, and the $24,128 student loan repayment threshold. We review and update these figures as IRD and ACC confirm annual changes.