What lands in your account—and what goes into KiwiSaver?
Answer five questions to see PAYE, KiwiSaver, take-home pay, working and source.
Questions people actually ask
Answered against the published rules, and dated.
Employer superannuation contribution tax. It is deducted from your employer's KiwiSaver contribution before that contribution reaches your account, so the amount that lands is always less than the amount contributed. It does not appear on your payslip, which is why almost nobody knows about it.
Yes, and it matters. The levy applies only to earnings up to a maximum, above which it is fixed. A calculator that applies a flat rate to your whole income will overcharge you if you earn above the cap.
IRD includes the ACC levy inside the PAYE amount on a payslip. This page shows them as separate lines so you can see both, which is more transparent but will not line up row for row against a payslip.
The default rose to 3.5% on 1 April 2026, and the rates you can choose are 3.5%, 4%, 6%, 8%, 10%. 3% is not among them any more: it survives only as a temporary rate reduction you apply to Inland Revenue for, granted for three months to a year, after which your deductions go back to 3.5% on their own. Your employer may drop to 3% alongside you, but is not obliged to — the compulsory minimum stays 3.5%.
No. Everything here is present value — what each rate costs you this year. Projections are a different kind of calculation with different rules attached, and are deliberately out of scope.