Most of the time your employer passes tax on to Inland Revenue from your pay. If you’re an employee and you’re on the right tax code for all your income, you shouldn’t have to do anything at the end of the tax year. IR contacts you if they think you need to do a tax return.
The following sources of income from work are taxed:
- salary and wages
- compensation for loss of earnings paid by ACC
- some bonus payments — these are taxed differently if you get a lump sum or if they’re paid in regular amounts
- allowances paid to you by your employer in some circumstances, such as travel, accommodation or relocation costs
- your pay from a job you did in NZ for an overseas employer.
Bonuses and allowances
Casual or contract work
It’s your responsibility to pay tax on:
- contract work or casual work — including cash jobs or ‘under the table’ payments
- income from being self-employed.
Self-employment and tax
In some cases your employer deducts tax from your contract or casual income payments. These payments are called schedular payments.
You’ll usually get schedular payments if:
- you’re a contractor with a labour hire business — a business that contracts you to other businesses, or
- you do any of the types of work listed at the end of IR’s IR330C form.
Receiving schedular payments
The IR330C form is the IR form you need to complete to choose the rate of tax you have deducted from your payments.
IR330C - choose a tax rate for your schedular payments
The amount of tax your employer takes may not be all the tax you need to pay. Check with IR to find out if you need to pay more tax, ACC earner’s levies or money you owe on your student loan.
