PAYE Calculator NZ – Your Take-Home Pay After Tax and ACC
A New Zealand payslip has more moving parts than most people realise: PAYE income tax climbing five brackets with no tax-free threshold, the ACC earner levy that funds injury cover and stops at a cap, KiwiSaver coming out of your pay but landing in your own account, and student loan repayments that switch on past a set line. This calculator runs all four on your salary for the 2025/26 tax year, using the published Inland Revenue and ACC figures, and shows the take-home pay per year, month, fortnight and week — with KiwiSaver and student loan kept on their own lines, never mixed into the tax.
Your salary and deductions
The figures assume this is your main job on tax code M, the primary-income code most employees use. KiwiSaver is worked out on your gross pay and comes out of your after-tax pay — it never reduces the PAYE tax itself, and your employer adds their own contribution on top, which is their money and never appears here.
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Your estimated take-home pay for 2025/26
From gross salary to take-home pay
What this means
On a salary of $75,000.00 in 2025/26 you take home $59,027.00 — PAYE tax of $14,720.50 and the ACC levy of $1,252.50 together take 21.30% of everything you earn. Your top bracket is 30%, but that rate only touches the $21,500.00 of income above $53,500; the first $15,600.00 is taxed at just 10.5%. Your payslips spread these figures across the year, so your fortnightly take-home of $2,270.27 is the number to compare against them.
One honest simplification. Real payroll works out each pay period on its own — your employer annualises that period’s pay, applies the brackets and the ACC levy, and rounds to the cent — so a real fortnight’s deduction can differ from the annual figures here divided by 26 by a few cents. Over a full year on a steady salary the two settle to the same total, which is what this page shows.
- New Zealand taxes every dollar from the first one — five PAYE brackets and no tax-free threshold.
- Each bracket rate applies only to the income inside its own slice, so crossing into a higher bracket never re-prices the dollars below it.
- KiwiSaver is savings, not tax: it lowers take-home but never moves the PAYE or ACC lines, and the ACC levy stops at its cap.
Your pay, layer by layer
PAYE is not one rate on everything. Each slice of your salary is taxed at its own bracket rate, the ACC levy runs flat until its cap, and KiwiSaver and a student loan — if you have them — sit on their own lines underneath. Here is the same salary, dismantled.
| Part of the bill | Income it falls on | Share of salary | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| PAYE at 10.5% | $15,600.00 | $1,638.00 | |
| PAYE at 17.5% | $37,900.00 | $6,632.50 | |
| PAYE at 30% | $21,500.00 | $6,450.00 | |
| ACC earner levy at 1.67% | $75,000.00 | $1,252.50 | |
| Total deductions | $15,973.00 |
Every part is rounded to the cent, the way a payslip rounds. The bar beside each line shows what share of your gross salary that slice of income represents. KiwiSaver and student loan lines only appear in this table when you switch them on above — they are never folded into the tax.
Your top rate is not your tax rate
Give this salary a $1,000 raise and $316.70 of it never reaches you: $300.00 of PAYE tax and $16.70 of ACC earner levy. You keep $683.30. That is a marginal take of 31.67% on the next thousand — yet across the whole $75,000.00, PAYE tax and the ACC levy together average out at just 21.30%. Only the slice of income inside each bracket pays that bracket’s rate, which is why a rise is always worth having.
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How it works, in 3 steps
Five brackets, no tax-free threshold
New Zealand taxes every dollar from the first one: 10.5% on the first $15,600, then 17.5%, 30% and 33% on the slices above, and 39% on anything over $180,000. Each rate only ever applies to the income inside its own slice — crossing into a higher bracket never re-prices the dollars below it.
The ACC levy runs flat, then stops
On top of the tax, employees pay the ACC earner levy of 1.67% of gross pay. It funds New Zealand’s no-fault injury cover — the scheme that looks after you whether you are hurt at work, at home or on the sports field. Unlike the tax it has a ceiling: it is only charged on the first $152,790 of earnings, so the most anyone pays in 2025/26 is $2,551.59.
KiwiSaver and student loans are separate lines
KiwiSaver contributions of 3%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% are worked out on your gross pay and taken from your after-tax pay. They do not reduce your PAYE by a cent, because they are not a tax — they are your own retirement savings. Student loan repayments are different again: 12% of everything you earn over $24,128 a year, collected only while a loan balance remains.
How each figure is worked out
The starting figures, worked through. An employee earns $75,000 in 2025/26, is not contributing to KiwiSaver right now and has no student loan. PAYE first, slice by slice: 10.5% of the first $15,600 is $1,638.00, 17.5% of the next $37,900 is $6,632.50, and 30% of the remaining $21,500 is $6,450.00 — $14,720.50 of income tax in total. The ACC earner levy is 1.67% of the full $75,000, which is $1,252.50; the salary is well under the $152,790 cap, so nothing is trimmed. The two deductions total $15,973.00, so the take-home pay is $59,027.00 for the year — $4,918.92 a month, $2,270.27 a fortnight and $1,135.13 a week. Switch KiwiSaver on at 3% and a further $2,250.00 a year moves into the employee’s own KiwiSaver account; switch a student loan on and $6,104.64 a year — 12% of the $50,872 earned over the threshold — goes toward the loan. Neither changes the tax by a cent.
The 2025/26 figures this page runs on (Inland Revenue tax tables and ACC levy rates for the year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026):
| Figure for 2025/26 | Amount |
|---|---|
| Tax on income up to $15,600 | 10.5% |
| Tax on $15,601 to $53,500 | 17.5% |
| Tax on $53,501 to $78,100 | 30% |
| Tax on $78,101 to $180,000 | 33% |
| Tax on income over $180,000 | 39% |
| ACC earner levy | 1.67% of earnings up to $152,790 (maximum levy $2,551.59) |
| Student loan repayment | 12% of earnings over $24,128 a year ($464 a week) |
| KiwiSaver employee rates | 3%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of gross pay |
The tax brackets above stay the same for 2026/27, but two settings move on 1 April 2026: the ACC earner levy rises to 1.75% on earnings up to $156,641, and the default KiwiSaver rate rises to 3.5%. This page runs the 2025/26 figures throughout, and says so wherever it matters.
Deep dives
The letters on your payslip are instructions, not decoration. Code M — the one this calculator assumes — is for your main job, the one you expect to earn the most from, and it taxes your pay against the full set of brackets. Code ME is the same code plus the Independent Earner Tax Credit: $520 a year if your income lands between $24,000 and $48,000, trimming away once you pass $44,000 and gone by $48,000. If you are on ME, your real take-home is a little better than the figures here, because this page does not model that credit.
A second job is taxed differently on purpose. Codes starting with S — S, SH, SB and their kin — apply a single flat rate to the whole of the second income, chosen to match the bracket your combined income reaches, so you do not underpay all year and face a bill after 31 March. The SL suffix, as in M SL, simply bolts student loan repayments onto whichever code it follows. Getting the code wrong never changes the tax you truly owe for the year — Inland Revenue squares it up in the annual assessment — but it changes how bumpy the ride is getting there.
The earner levy is a premium, not a tax, and premiums have ceilings. It pays for the non-work side of ACC — injuries at home, on the road and on the sports field — and because the weekly compensation it funds is itself capped, the levy is capped too: in 2025/26 it stops once your earnings pass $152,790, at a maximum of $2,551.59 a year. Your employer pays a separate work levy on top of your salary, priced by the risk of your industry; that money is never yours and never comes out of your pay, which is why it never appears on this page.
KiwiSaver sits in a third category of its own. Your contribution is calculated on gross pay but deducted from your after-tax pay, so it changes what lands in your bank account without changing your tax by a single cent. Your employer must add at least 3% of their own money on top (employer contributions carry their own tax, ESCT, before they reach your account), and the combined pot stays invested in your name. Two payslips can show the same PAYE and the same ACC and still land very differently — KiwiSaver is usually the reason.
Five brackets, one payslip — on two salaries
New Zealand’s PAYE system taxes income in slices, and the page’s default salary walks through the first three of them. On a salary of $75,000 in 2025/26, with no KiwiSaver and no student loan, the calculator gives take-home pay of $59,027.00 a year, or $2,270.27 a fortnight. PAYE income tax is $14,720.50 and the ACC earner levy is $1,252.50, for total deductions of $15,973.00. The page’s own bracket table shows the PAYE arithmetic slice by slice: PAYE at 10.5% on $15,600.00 is $1,638.00, PAYE at 17.5% on $37,900.00 is $6,632.50, and PAYE at 30% on $21,500.00 is $6,450.00 — and $1,638.00 plus $6,632.50 plus $6,450.00 is exactly $14,720.50. The brackets behind those slices, from the page’s own figures table, are 10.5% on income up to $15,600, 17.5% on $15,601 to $53,500, 30% on $53,501 to $78,100, 33% on $78,101 to $180,000, and 39% on income over $180,000. On $75,000, the top slice is the 30% slice, and it touches only the $21,500 above $53,500 — the first $15,600 is taxed at just 10.5%, as the page’s own results text points out.
| Case | PAYE tax | ACC levy (1.67%) | Take-home per year | Take-home per fortnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $75,000, no KiwiSaver, no student loan (the page default) | $14,720.50 | $1,252.50 | $59,027.00 | $2,270.27 |
| $75,000, KiwiSaver at 3% | $14,720.50 | $1,252.50 | $56,777.00 | $2,183.73 |
| $75,000, student loan repayments | $14,720.50 | $1,252.50 | $52,922.36 | $2,035.48 |
| $100,000, no KiwiSaver, no student loan | $22,877.50 | $1,670.00 | $75,452.50 | $2,902.02 |
The $100,000 row shows the next two brackets doing their work. PAYE of $22,877.50 is $1,638.00 at 10.5%, plus $6,632.50 at 17.5%, plus 30% on the $24,600.00 between $53,500 and $78,100, which is $7,380.00, plus 33% on the $21,900.00 above $78,100, which is $7,227.00 — and $1,638.00 plus $6,632.50 plus $7,380.00 plus $7,227.00 is exactly $22,877.50. The ACC levy is 1.67% of $100,000, which is $1,670.00, and take-home is $75,452.50 a year, or $2,902.02 a fortnight. The extra $25,000 of salary added $16,425.50 of take-home, $8,157.00 of PAYE and $417.50 of ACC — and the PAYE increment is not a single rate, because the extra income spans two brackets: part at 30% and part at 33%. A pay rise that crosses a bracket boundary therefore costs a blended rate on the rise, never the top rate on the whole salary, and never the average rate either. The page’s own FAQ makes the same point as a question — “does a pay rise push all of my income into a higher tax bracket?” — and the answer, visible in both rows, is no: only the slice above the boundary is taxed at the higher rate.
The fortnightly figures deserve a note of their own, because they are the numbers a New Zealand worker actually compares with a payslip. The page spreads the annual figures across the year, so the fortnightly take-home on $75,000 is $2,270.27 — the annual $59,027.00 divided by 26 fortnights. A worker paid monthly will see a different per-payment figure for the same annual take-home, and a worker comparing the calculator with a single payslip should compare the annualised figure, not one fortnight in isolation. Fortnightly pay also interacts with the student loan threshold below, which the page states both ways — $24,128 a year, or $464 a week — and $464 times 52 is exactly $24,128, so the two statements are one threshold, not two.
KiwiSaver is savings, the student loan is a deduction, and ACC stops at the cap
The three rows after the default in the table above look similar, and they are not. KiwiSaver at 3% on $75,000 deducts $2,250.00 a year — 3% of gross pay — and take-home falls from $59,027.00 to $56,777.00, or $2,183.73 a fortnight. PAYE tax and the ACC levy do not move at all: $14,720.50 and $1,252.50 in both rows. That is the whole point of the page’s FAQ question “is KiwiSaver a tax”, and its answer: KiwiSaver is your own savings, not a tax. The $2,250.00 has not been taken by the government; it has been moved into your KiwiSaver account, where it remains yours. A worker comparing take-home figures with and without KiwiSaver should therefore never describe the $2,250.00 as lost — it is saved, through payroll, at a rate the worker chose from the page’s own options of 3%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of gross pay. What the page does not show, and this guide states rather than inventing, is the employer’s KiwiSaver contribution and the ESCT tax on it: the employee deduction is the only KiwiSaver figure on this page, and the employer’s side has to be read off the payslip or the scheme statement.
Student loan repayments are the opposite: money that genuinely leaves take-home. With the student loan select set, repayments are 12% of earnings over $24,128 a year — on $75,000, 12% of $50,872.00, which is $6,104.64 — and take-home falls from $59,027.00 to $52,922.36, or $2,035.48 a fortnight. PAYE and ACC again do not move. The threshold is the whole story: below $24,128 of earnings there is no repayment at all, and every dollar above it costs 12 cents until the loan is gone. A graduate whose salary crosses the threshold mid-career should expect the $6,104.64-sized change to arrive as a step, not a slope, and should check the repayment line on the payslip against 12% of pay above the threshold rather than against any percentage of total pay. The page’s student loan select is also the SL suffix in tax-code terms: as the page’s deep dive explains, the SL suffix simply bolts student loan repayments onto whichever tax code it follows.
The ACC earner levy has a cap that high earners meet and everyone else does not. The levy is 1.67% of earnings up to $152,790 in 2025/26, with a maximum levy of $2,551.59, as the page’s own figures table states — and 1.67% of $152,790 is $2,551.59 to the cent, so the cap is the rate applied to the cap, not a separate figure. Below $152,790 the levy is simply 1.67% of pay: $1,252.50 on $75,000, $1,670.00 on $100,000. Above $152,790 it stops growing, so the marginal ACC cost of extra income above the cap is zero — one of the few places in the New Zealand system where earning more does not cost more deduction. The page’s deep dive is titled for exactly this point, “why the ACC levy stops at $152,790”, and the answer is the cap: a levy with a maximum is a levy that ends, and the payslip of a worker above the cap should show $2,551.59 for the year, not 1.67% of the whole salary.
One more scope note, from the page’s own deep dive on tax codes. The calculator assumes code M — the main-job code, for the job you expect to earn the most from, taxed against the full set of brackets. Code ME is the same code plus the Independent Earner Tax Credit: $520 a year if income lands between $24,000 and $48,000, trimming away once you pass $44,000 and gone by $48,000, as the deep dive states — and this page does not model that credit, so a worker on ME will find real take-home a little better than the figures here. Codes starting with S apply a single flat rate to a second job’s income, chosen to match the bracket the combined income reaches. The page has no tax-code input: it prices the standard M case, with the student-loan select covering the SL suffix, and other codes’ effects are outside its model. Check the code on your payslip before treating any figure here as final — getting the code wrong never changes the tax you ultimately owe, but it changes when you pay it, and a year of the wrong code is a year of the wrong fortnightly figure.
PAYE is pay-as-you-earn, not a year-end bill
PAYE stands for pay as you earn, and the name is the mechanism: tax is withheld from each paycheck as it is paid, at the rate that paycheck implies for the year. You do not save up a year’s tax and settle it later, and you do not pay the same flat rate on every dollar. Each slice of income is taxed at its own bracket rate, so a pay rise that crosses a bracket boundary taxes only the slice above the boundary at the higher rate, never your whole salary.
That is why the marginal rate and the average rate tell different stories on the same payslip. The marginal rate is the rate on your next dollar. The average rate is total tax divided by total income, and it is always lower than the marginal rate once you are past the first bracket. If a raise looks smaller than expected, check whether you are comparing the marginal rate with the average outcome; the payslip is usually right and the expectation is usually the marginal rate misapplied to everything.
What to check when your pay changes mid-year
Three things deserve a check whenever pay changes mid-year: the tax code, the KiwiSaver rate, and any student loan deduction. A second job, a bonus, or a mid-year raise can leave withholding slightly high or low for a few cycles, because each paycheck is annualised on its own. Small over- or under-withholding through the year is normal and is reconciled at year end; it is not, by itself, evidence that the calculator or the payroll system is wrong.
The useful habit is to compare the year-to-date figures, not a single paycheck. Add up gross pay and tax withheld so far, and check them against the annual expectation for your salary. A single unusual paycheck is usually timing; a year-to-date figure that drifts steadily away from expectation is the signal that a code, a rate, or a deduction needs attention.
New Zealand pay questions, answered
What are the New Zealand PAYE tax rates for 2025/26?
Five brackets, and no tax-free threshold — the first dollar you earn is taxed. For the year from 1 April 2025 you pay 10.5% on income up to $15,600, 17.5% on the slice from $15,601 to $53,500, 30% from $53,501 to $78,100, 33% from $78,101 to $180,000, and 39% on anything above $180,000. Each rate applies only to the income inside its own slice, so on a salary of $75,000 the tax is $1,638.00 plus $6,632.50 plus $6,450.00 — $14,720.50 in total, an average of 19.63% even though your top bracket is 30%.
What is the ACC earner levy, and how much is it in 2025/26?
It is the employee’s contribution to ACC, the scheme that provides no-fault cover for personal injuries in New Zealand — treatment and up to 80% of your income if an injury keeps you off work, whoever caused it. For 2025/26 the earner levy is 1.67% of your gross earnings, charged only on the first $152,790 you earn, which caps the most anyone pays at $2,551.59 for the year. It is collected through your pay alongside PAYE and usually shows as its own line on the payslip. From 1 April 2026 the rate rises to 1.75%, on earnings up to $156,641.
Is KiwiSaver a tax?
No, and the difference matters. KiwiSaver contributions are your own retirement savings. They are worked out as a percentage of your gross pay — you choose 3%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% — but they are deducted from your after-tax pay and they do not reduce your PAYE by a cent. Your employer adds at least 3% of their own money on top, and the balance sits in an account in your name. That is why this calculator always shows KiwiSaver on its own line, separate from the tax: switching it on lowers what lands in your bank account, but the money is still yours.
How are student loan repayments worked out from my pay?
If your tax code carries the SL suffix, your employer deducts 12% of what you earn over the repayment threshold in each pay period. For 2025/26 the threshold is $24,128 a year — $464 a week, $928 a fortnight. Earn under it in a period and nothing is deducted that period; earn over it and only the excess is charged. On a steady salary of $75,000 that comes to 12% of $50,872, which is $6,104.64 a year. The repayments reduce your loan balance, never your tax, and they stop for good once the loan is repaid.
Why is my real payslip slightly different from this calculator?
Mostly because payroll works period by period while this page works on the whole year. Your employer annualises each period’s pay — overtime, a bonus or a short week included — applies the brackets and the levy, and rounds to the cent, so any single fortnight can land a few dollars either side of the annual figures divided by 26. Add the things this estimate leaves out — the Independent Earner Tax Credit if your code is ME, a second job on a secondary code, allowances, and KiwiSaver charged on every dollar of gross including overtime — and small gaps are normal. On a steady salary over a full year, the totals settle to the same place.
Does a pay rise push all of my income into a higher tax bracket?
No — this is the most common misunderstanding in the whole system. Brackets are slices, not settings. If your pay rises from $53,500 to $54,500, only the extra $1,000 sits in the 30% slice and pays $300 of extra tax; the first $53,500 is taxed exactly as it was before. You keep $700 of the thousand, plus a little less after the ACC levy. A raise can move some of your income into a higher bracket, but it can never leave you with less take-home pay than before the raise.
Is KiwiSaver a tax?
No. KiwiSaver at 3% on $75,000 deducts $2,250.00 a year, but PAYE tax and the ACC levy do not move at all — the $2,250.00 is your own savings, moved into your KiwiSaver account through payroll, not taken by the government. Take-home falls from $59,027.00 to $56,777.00, but the difference is saved, not lost. The page shows the employee deduction only; the employer’s contribution and its tax are not displayed here.
At what salary does the ACC levy stop growing?
At $152,790 of earnings in 2025/26. The levy is 1.67% of earnings up to that cap, giving a maximum levy of $2,551.59 — 1.67% of $152,790 to the cent. Above the cap the marginal ACC cost of extra income is zero, so a payslip above the cap should show $2,551.59 for the year, not 1.67% of the whole salary.
How are student loan repayments worked out from my pay?
At 12% of earnings over $24,128 a year ($464 a week). On $75,000 that is 12% of $50,872.00, which is $6,104.64, taking take-home from $59,027.00 to $52,922.36. Below $24,128 there is no repayment at all. In tax-code terms this is the SL suffix, bolted onto whichever code it follows.
Which tax code does this calculator assume?
Code M, the main-job code, taxed against the full set of brackets. The page has no tax-code input: code ME adds the Independent Earner Tax Credit of $520 a year between $24,000 and $48,000, which this page does not model, so ME workers will find real take-home a little better than the figures here; S codes tax a second job at a single flat rate. Check the code on your payslip before treating any figure here as final.
Is PAYE a flat rate on my whole salary?
No. Each slice of income is taxed at its own bracket rate, so only the slice above a boundary is taxed at the higher rate. Your average rate is total tax divided by total income, and it is lower than your marginal rate.
Why is my tax different after a mid-year pay change?
Each paycheck is annualised on its own, so a raise, bonus, or second job can leave withholding slightly high or low for a few cycles. Compare year-to-date figures against the annual expectation; a single unusual paycheck is usually timing.
What else comes out of a New Zealand paycheck besides income tax?
Depending on your situation, KiwiSaver contributions, a student loan repayment, and ACC levies handled through the payroll system. KiwiSaver is savings in your own name, while the student loan repayment is a deduction that reduces a debt.
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