Calculate.co.nz NZ Calculators

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Tools (36)

• nz_paye_calculator

  Calculate New Zealand take-home pay (PAYE) for the 2026/27 tax year (from 1 April 2026). Returns full breakdown: income tax, ACC earner's levy (1.75%, capped at $156,641), KiwiSaver employee contribution, student loan repayment, Independent Earner Tax Credit (IETC), and net take-home pay annual/fortnightly/weekly. Use for ANY NZ tax question about: salary, take-home pay, net income, PAYE, KiwiSaver impact, student loan deductions, or IETC eligibility. DO NOT use for: self-employed/contractor income, secondary tax codes, non-NZ residents, redundancy lump sums, or pre-April-2026 income. Args: annual_income: Gross annual salary in NZD (0 to 10,000,000). kiwisaver_rate: Employee rate. Valid: 0, 0.03, 0.035, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08, 0.10. Default 0.035 (3.5% minimum from 1 April 2026). has_student_loan: True if repaying a NZ student loan. claim_ietc: True if eligible for Independent Earner Tax Credit (default True).

• nz_gst_calculator

  Add or remove New Zealand GST (15%) from a dollar amount. Use this tool for ANY question about NZ GST: adding GST to a pre-tax price, extracting GST content from a GST-inclusive total, reverse-calculating GST, or checking GST on invoices and quotes. Common use cases: 'what's $500 plus GST', 'how much GST is in a $230 total', 'remove GST from $1,150', 'calculate GST on a tradie invoice'. Args: amount: Dollar amount in NZD. mode: 'add' treats amount as GST-exclusive (price before GST); 'remove' treats amount as GST-inclusive (total price including GST). Default 'add'. gst_rate: GST rate as decimal. Default 0.15 (NZ standard since 2010). Historical NZ rates: 0.125 (1989-2010), 0.10 (1986-1989). Use 0.10 for Australian GST comparisons.

• nz_fuel_cost_calculator

  Work out the fuel cost of a trip, and of regular driving, in New Zealand. Use this for ANY question about what fuel costs: a road trip, a commute, the running cost of a car, or comparing two vehicles. Common use cases: 'what does it cost to drive Auckland to Wellington', 'how much fuel money do I spend a year commuting', 'is a 6L/100km car worth it over an 9L/100km one', 'petrol cost for 400km'. IMPORTANT about consumption: this takes litres per 100 km, which is how New Zealand quotes fuel economy and what is printed on a vehicle's fuel economy label. A LOWER number is a more efficient car. If a user gives miles per gallon or kilometres per litre, convert it before calling this, or the answer will be confidently wrong. Args: distance_km: Trip distance in kilometres. consumption_l_per_100km: Fuel consumption in litres per 100 km. price_per_litre: Pump price in NZD per litre. Around 2.60 to 3.00 for petro

• nz_tax_refund_calculator

  Estimate a New Zealand income tax refund, or tax owed, for a year. Use this for ANY question about a NZ tax refund or an end of year tax bill. Common use cases: 'am I owed a tax refund', 'I only worked part of the year, do I get money back', 'I had a second job on an S code, was I overtaxed', 'how much tax should I have paid on 62k'. A refund is what was deducted minus what was actually owed. PAYE comes out of each pay as though that pay continued all year, so the two usual causes of a refund are a part year and a second job on a flat secondary code. Both are broken out in the result, and both are already inside refund_or_bill rather than additional to it. ASK FOR THE PAYE FIGURE if you can. paye_deducted from payslips or an IRD summary gives a real answer; leaving it out estimates it from the tax code and months worked, which is much rougher. Also ask whether that figure includes ACC, because most payslips lump the earner levy in

• nz_gpa_calculator

  Calculate a grade point average for a New Zealand university. Use for any NZ GPA question: 'what is my GPA', 'work out my grade point average from these grades', 'how much will a C drag my GPA down'. CRITICAL: New Zealand uses a NINE POINT scale, not the American 4.0 scale. A+ 9, A 8, A- 7, B+ 6, B 5, B- 4, C+ 3, C 2, C- 1, D and below 0. A GPA of 7.0 is a strong New Zealand result. Do NOT convert to or from a 4.0 scale: the bands do not correspond and any conversion will be wrong. It is credit-weighted, so a grade in a 45 credit paper counts three times a grade in a 15 credit one, and failed papers still count their credits at zero points. Args: courses: One dict per paper, each with "grade" (A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, D+, D, D-, U, F or J) and "credits" (commonly 15). scale: Optional overrides if the institution weights grades differently. Returns: The GPA, the credits and weighted points it ca

• nz_hourly_to_salary_calculator

  Convert a New Zealand hourly rate into a salary, before and after tax. Use for: 'what is $32 an hour as a salary', 'how much do I take home on $28/hr', 'is $75,000 better than $36 an hour', 'what is my hourly rate really worth after tax'. Gives gross weekly, fortnightly, monthly and annual, then PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver and student loan, then take-home. Args: hourly_rate: Gross pay per hour in NZD. hours_per_week: Ordinary hours a week. 40 is full time in NZ. weeks_per_year: Weeks actually paid. Use fewer for seasonal or academic work; 52 otherwise. kiwisaver_rate: A DECIMAL, so 0.03 for 3%. Passing 3 is rejected. has_student_loan: Repayments at 12% above the annual threshold. Returns: Gross at each frequency, every deduction, net annual, net weekly, and effective_hourly_after_tax. Note the two weekly figures answer different questions: net_weekly always divides by 52, so it

• nz_work_hours_calculator

  Add up a timesheet of work hours, and turn them into gross pay. Use for: 'how many hours did I work this week', 'add up my shifts', 'what will I be paid for these hours', 'I worked 22:00 to 06:00, how long is that'. Handles overnight shifts: a finish time at or before the start is treated as the next day, so 22:00 to 06:00 is eight hours rather than a negative. Args: days: One dict per day worked, each with "start" and "finish" as "HH:MM" in 24 hour time, optional "break_minutes" of unpaid break, and an optional "label". Leave days off out of the list entirely. hourly_rate: Gross pay per hour. Zero returns hours only. Returns: Hours for each day, the total, and GROSS pay weekly, fortnightly, monthly and annually. For take-home pay use nz_hourly_to_salary_calculator with the rate and the hours. Does not apply overtime or penal rates, public holiday entitlements, or a minimum wage che

• nz_bonus_tax_calculator

  Work out the tax on a New Zealand bonus or commission, and what is left. Use for: 'how much tax will I pay on my bonus', 'why was my bonus taxed so much', 'what will I actually get from a $10,000 bonus', 'is commission taxed differently'. A bonus is an extra emolument. It is NOT taxed at a flat rate and NOT at the person's ordinary rate. The tax is the difference between tax on (salary + bonus) and tax on salary alone. This is why a bonus so often looks over-taxed and is not: when it straddles a bracket, part is taxed at the lower rate and part at the higher one, so the effective rate sits between them and above the rate on their salary. crosses_bracket tells you when to explain this. ALWAYS ask for the annual salary. The same bonus costs different amounts of tax depending on the salary underneath it, so an answer without it is a guess. Args: bonus_amount: Gross bonus or commission in NZD. annual_salary: Regul

• nz_parental_leave_calculator

  New Zealand paid parental leave: the payment, and the shortfall. Use for: 'how much is paid parental leave', 'can I afford to take parental leave', 'am I eligible for parental leave', 'how much less will I earn on parental leave'. LEAD YOUR ANSWER WITH THE GAP, not the payment. The payment is capped, so anyone earning over roughly $42,000 receives exactly the cap and already knows that number. What they do not know is weekly_gap and total_gap, how much less arrives and what it adds up to over the leave. That is the figure the decision actually turns on. Eligibility is a gate, not a reduction: 26 weeks of work in the year before the due date, at 10 or more hours a week. Fail either and the payment is zero. ineligible_reason names which test failed and by how much, so say that rather than only "not eligible". Args: annual_income: Gross annual income before tax, in NZD. employment_type: "employee" or "self_employed".

• bmi_calculator

  Calculate Body Mass Index (BMI) from metric measurements. Returns BMI value, category classification (Underweight, Healthy weight, Overweight, Obese, Morbidly obese), and the healthy weight range for the person's height. Use for any BMI question including 'what is my BMI', 'am I a healthy weight', 'what should I weigh for my height'. Inputs are metric only. If the user provides imperial units (feet, inches, pounds, stone), convert them first: 1 foot = 0.3048m, 1 inch = 0.0254m, 1 pound = 0.453592kg, 1 stone = 6.35029kg. Note: BMI is a screening tool, not a diagnosis. It doesn't distinguish muscle from fat, so very athletic people often show as 'overweight' despite being healthy. Always caveat with this when relevant. Args: weight_kg: Weight in kilograms (e.g. 75 for 75kg). height_m: Height in metres (e.g. 1.75 for 175cm).

• nz_mortgage_calculator

  Calculate NZ mortgage repayments and lifetime interest totals. Uses the standard amortising-loan PMT formula with monthly compounding. Returns monthly, fortnightly, and weekly repayment figures, total repayments over the life of the loan, total interest paid, and the principal/interest share as percentages. Use for ANY mortgage or home loan question: repayment amounts, affordability checks, comparing loan terms, estimating total interest, or evaluating refinance scenarios. For NZ context: typical NZ mortgage terms are 20-30 years, and rates quoted are annual nominal rates compounded monthly. Most NZ borrowers pay weekly or fortnightly even though rates are quoted monthly. Args: loan_amount: Principal borrowed in NZD (e.g. 650000). annual_interest_rate_pct: Annual rate as a PERCENTAGE not decimal (e.g. 6.5 for 6.5%, NOT 0.065). term_years: Loan term in whole years (typical NZ: 25 or 30).

• nz_annual_leave_calculator

  Project NZ annual leave balance forward under the Holidays Act 2003. Calculates hours accrued per week based on the holiday pay rate (8% standard NZ minimum), then projects the existing balance forward by the requested future period. Returns projected balance in hours, days, and weeks of equivalent leave. Use for any question about: annual leave accrual, future leave balance, planning time off, calculating entitlement after N months/years of work. NZ context: Holidays Act 2003 mandates minimum 4 weeks paid annual leave per year, which equates to 8% of hours worked accruing as leave. Employers may offer higher rates. Standard NZ full-time week is 40 hours across 5 x 8-hour days. Args: current_balance: Existing leave balance (in hours or days). current_balance_unit: 'hours' or 'days'. Default 'hours'. hours_per_workday: Standard workday length for this person (default 8). holiday_rate_pct: Holiday pay accrual

• nz_kiwisaver_calculator

  Project a NZ KiwiSaver balance from current age to retirement age. Month-by-month compound interest projection matching the calculate.co.nz methodology. Includes employee and employer contributions, voluntary top-ups at your chosen cadence, the government contribution ($260.72/yr if eligible), management fees, and PIR tax on investment gains. Returns both the nominal final balance and the inflation-adjusted real (today's dollars) balance. Use for ANY KiwiSaver retirement-planning question: 'how much will I have at 65', 'is $X enough to retire on', 'what happens if I contribute more', 'how much does switching from Conservative to Growth help', 'what's the impact of fees over 30 years'. FUND TYPES and expected annual returns: - Cash: 1.00% (very low risk, low return) - Conservative: 2.50% (low risk, default) - Balanced: 4.00% (moderate risk) - Growth: 7.00% (higher risk, higher expected return) - Custom: you specify via custo

• find_calculator

  Search all 2,377 Calculate.co.nz calculators, guides and datasets by topic. Calculate.co.nz is New Zealand's largest free calculator library. Only a handful of its tools have their own MCP tool; this searches EVERYTHING and returns the pages that match, so any calculation the site covers can be found and linked even when no dedicated tool exists here. Use for ANY question of the form "is there a calculator for...", "how do I work out...", "where can I calculate...", or whenever a New Zealand calculation is asked about and no specific tool above fits. Also use it before telling a user that something cannot be calculated: the site covers tax, mortgages, KiwiSaver, property, employment and leave, business metrics, investments, insurance, vehicles, maths, statistics, science, engineering, health and everyday conversions. Results are ranked with New Zealand specific pages first, because the site is written for NZ rules, rates and legisl

• nz_net_to_gross_calculator

  Work out the GROSS New Zealand salary needed to take home a given amount. Use for: 'what salary do I need to take home $1,200 a week', 'I want $70,000 in the hand, what do I ask for', 'what gross salary gives me $5,000 a month after tax', negotiating a package to a net figure. This cannot be done by scaling. Tax is progressive and the ACC levy is capped, so the gap between gross and net widens as income rises: doubling the take-home needs more than double the gross. ALWAYS tell the person which deductions were counted. By default the target is treated as after income tax and the ACC earner levy only, which is what the website assumes. If they contribute to KiwiSaver or repay a student loan, pass those, because the gross needed goes up materially. Args: target_net: The take-home wanted, in the period given. period: annual, monthly, fortnightly or weekly. kiwisaver_rate: A DECIMAL, 0.035 for 3.5%. Zero by default.

• nz_final_pay_calculator

  Work out a New Zealand final pay: leave payout, notice and redundancy. Use for: 'what should my final pay be', 'how much annual leave am I owed when I leave', 'I am resigning, what do they owe me', 'do I get 8% holiday pay'. ASK HOW LONG THEY WORKED THERE FIRST. It decides the whole calculation: - Under 12 months: no leave entitlement has vested, so the Holidays Act pays 8% of ALL gross earnings during the employment. Set service="under12" and pass gross_earnings_total. A leave balance showing in a payroll system is NOT what they are owed. - 12 months or more: unused leave is paid out at a daily rate. Set service="over12" and pass leave_balance_days. Getting that branch wrong is the common mistake and it changes the answer completely. ALWAYS say what the total leaves out: ordinary wages for days actually worked are paid on top at the usual rate, and every figure is GROSS. The leave payout is then taxed

• nz_secondary_tax_calculator

  Find the right New Zealand secondary tax code and what it costs. Use for: 'what tax code for my second job', 'is secondary tax a rip off', 'why am I taxed so much on my second job', 'what is SH SL', 'do I get that money back', filling in an IR330. CORRECT THE MISCONCEPTION. A secondary code is not a penalty. It approximates the marginal rate the second income attracts on top of the first, so roughly the right amount comes out through the year, and any excess comes back in the year-end square-up. year_end_position says which way it falls for this person, and a refund is common and normal. The rates look brutal because they are not income tax rates: each carries the 1.75% ACC earner levy, and the SL codes add 12% student loan on top. So 31.75% is 30 plus 1.75, not a 31.75% tax rate. The response breaks the rate into its components; use them when explaining. ALWAYS ask for the main job income. The code depends on the two incomes

• nz_pro_rata_salary_calculator

  Scale a full-time New Zealand salary to part-time hours, gross and net. Use for: 'what would $90,000 be for 3 days a week', 'pro rata salary for 25 hours', 'I am dropping to four days, what will I earn', 'is part time worth it after tax'. THE USEFUL PART IS THE TAKE-HOME, NOT THE GROSS. The gross scales with the hours; the take-home does not, because dropping hours drops the salary out of the higher brackets. Someone going from five days to three often keeps more than 60% of their take-home, and that is what the decision turns on. Lead with it. The Independent Earner Tax Credit defaults on, because part-time earnings are the band where it is worth the most. Turn it off for someone on a main benefit, Working for Families or NZ Super. Args: full_time_salary: The advertised full-time annual salary. full_time_hours: Hours a week full time is based on, usually 40. your_hours: Hours a week actually worked. ki

• nz_lump_sum_tax_calculator

  Tax on a New Zealand redundancy or lump sum, by IRD's rate table. Use for: 'how much tax on my redundancy', 'what will I get from a $40,000 redundancy payment', 'is redundancy taxed differently', 'tax on a retirement payment', checking a redundancy letter. TWO RULES MAKE REDUNDANCY DIFFERENT AND BOTH ARE EASY TO MISS. Redundancy and retirement payments carry NO ACC earner levy, so they always take the lower rate column whatever the income, and NO KiwiSaver is deducted from them at all. Treating a redundancy like a bonus overstates the deductions twice over. Pass payment_type correctly. This applies IRD's published rate TABLE, where annualised income plus the lump sum picks one flat rate charged on the whole payment. That is what an employer deducts on the day. nz_bonus_tax_calculator computes the same tax the exact way instead, which is roughly where the year-end assessment lands. Both are right; they give different answers. Use th

• nz_working_for_families_calculator

  Work out a New Zealand family's Working for Families entitlement. Use for: 'how much Working for Families will I get', 'what is my family tax credit', 'do I qualify for the in-work tax credit', 'how much Best Start will I get', 'will I lose Working for Families if I earn more'. CORRECT A COMMON AND EXPENSIVE MISTAKE. There is NO hours test for the In-Work Tax Credit and has not been one since 1 July 2020. Anyone with some income from paid work each week, who is not on an income-tested benefit or student allowance, qualifies. Many sources, including our own website page, still repeat the old 20 hours sole parent / 30 hours couple rule. A parent working fifteen hours a week is entitled to $7,670 this year and is often told they are not. ASK FOR THE COMBINED FAMILY INCOME, not one partner's. Everything abates against it, so an answer from one income is wrong. ASK HOW MANY CHILDREN ARE UNDER 3, not under 1. Best Start runs to the

• nz_road_user_charges_calculator

  Work out New Zealand road user charges for an EV, diesel or plug-in hybrid. Use for: 'how much RUC will I pay', 'what does RUC cost for an EV', 'is a diesel cheaper than petrol once you count RUC', 'do hybrids pay RUC', 'how much are road user charges a year'. GET THE VEHICLE TYPE RIGHT, because it changes the rate: ev $76 per 1,000 km diesel $76 phev_petrol $38, roughly half, because petrol excise is already paid phev_diesel $76, the FULL rate, since diesel carries no excise hybrid_petrol no RUC at all An ordinary petrol hybrid paying nothing is not an exemption: it pays through fuel excise at the pump. Say that rather than implying it escapes. MENTION THE TRANSACTION FEES. RUC is bought in prepaid blocks and every purchase carries a fee, so 20,000 km in 1,000 km blocks pays it twenty times. Buying bigger blocks is the main saving available, and it is invisible if you only multiply distance

• nz_electricity_cost_calculator

  Estimate a New Zealand household's electricity cost, by region and appliance. Use for: 'how much does power cost in Auckland', 'what does my heat pump cost to run', 'why is my power bill so high', 'is electricity cheaper in Wellington', 'how much does it cost to charge an EV at home'. WHERE THEY LIVE CHANGES THE ANSWER MATERIALLY. Wellington pays 34.61c a unit and Balclutha 48.93c, from MBIE's survey. Ask for the town. LEAD WITH biggest_users. A heat pump and a hot water cylinder dominate almost every bill; standby power almost never does, which is the opposite of where most saving advice points. Naming the two appliances that matter is more useful than the total. MENTION THE FIXED CHARGE. Every connection pays a daily charge whatever it uses, so a low user pays a large share of the bill just for being connected, and a household under 8,000 kWh a year should compare a low fixed charge plan. Those regulations are capped at $1.80 a

• nz_ncea_rank_score_calculator

  Turn NCEA credits into a University Entrance rank score and a GPA. Use for: 'convert my NCEA to GPA', 'what is my rank score', 'what rank score do I need for medicine', 'how many credits do I need for university', 'NCEA to 4.0 GPA'. ANSWER WITH THE RANK SCORE EVEN WHEN THEY ASKED FOR A GPA. NZQA issues no GPA, so the 4-point figure is an unofficial convention and must be labelled as one. The University Entrance rank score is the number every New Zealand university actually uses to select for limited-entry programmes like medicine, law and engineering, and almost nobody asks for it by name. THE MOST USEFUL THING YOU CAN TELL THEM IS IN credits_ignored. The rank score uses the BEST 80 credits at Level 3 or above, counted Excellence first. A student with 80 Excellence and 40 Achieved scores exactly the same as one with 80 Excellence alone. So collecting more Achieved credits is worth nothing once they have 80, while lifting one existi

• nz_vehicle_loan_calculator

  Work out repayments on a New Zealand car loan, and what it really costs. Use for: 'what would repayments be on a $35,000 car', 'car loan calculator', 'is a 5 year car loan a bad idea', 'how much interest will I pay on car finance'. LEAD WITH interest_share_of_borrowing, NOT THE MONTHLY PAYMENT. Car finance runs at rates a mortgage borrower would not recognise, so over five years the interest often exceeds 30% of what was borrowed. That single figure informs the decision more than the payment does, and it is the one nobody is shown at the dealership. The term is short, so stretching it barely moves the monthly payment and moves the total interest a great deal. If they are considering a longer term, run both and show the difference in total interest. fortnightly_equivalent is the monthly payment converted, because that is how most people are paid. It is NOT fortnightly amortisation, which would clear the loan faster and is a dif

• energy_expenditure_calculator

  Work out maintenance calories (TDEE), BMR, and a target for a goal. Use for: 'how many calories should I eat', 'what is my TDEE', 'calorie deficit to lose weight', 'how many calories to lose 5kg', 'what are my macros'. NAME THE FORMULA. Mifflin-St Jeor and the revised Harris-Benedict differ by 5 to 10% for the same person, which is often more than the entire deficit they are trying to run. formula_spread_kcal is that gap and bmr_formula_used says which one the answer took. Quoting a calorie number without saying where it came from is the mistake to avoid here, because the person will treat it as measured rather than estimated. ASK FOR BODY FAT IF THEY MIGHT KNOW IT. With it, Katch-McArdle works from lean mass and is the better estimate, particularly for anyone muscular or carrying more fat than average, where the weight-based formulas are worst. WARN ABOUT THE ACTIVITY LEVEL. Most people overestimate it, and one level is worth

• nz_fbt_calculator

  Work out New Zealand fringe benefit tax on a company vehicle, a low-interest loan, or another benefit. Use for: 'FBT on a company car', 'how much FBT do I pay', 'fringe benefit tax calculator', 'is the alternate rate cheaper', 'FBT on a staff loan'. THE RATE IS THE EASY PART. What goes wrong is the taxable value, because FBT is charged on a value derived from the asset, not on what the benefit cost the employer. For a vehicle the two methods give very different answers on the same car. Cost price is 5% a quarter of the GST-inclusive price the employer paid and NEVER FALLS as the car ages. Tax book value is 9% a quarter of the written-down value, with a floor of $8,333. An older vehicle is usually cheaper on tax book value; a cheap one can be dearer, because of the floor. If someone is choosing, run both. THE DAYS DIVISOR IS ALWAYS 90, under section RD 29(5)(a) of the Income Tax Act 2007. It is not the number of days in the act

• nz_redundancy_entitlement_calculator

  Work out what is actually owed when a New Zealand role is made redundant. Use for: 'what redundancy am I entitled to', 'redundancy pay NZ', 'made redundant what do I get', 'is redundancy pay compulsory in New Zealand'. START WITH THIS, BECAUSE IT IS THE MOST COMMON ERROR IN GENERAL ADVICE: NEW ZEALAND HAS NO STATUTORY REDUNDANCY PAY. None. An employee is entitled to redundancy compensation ONLY if their employment agreement provides for it. This is the opposite of the UK and Australian position, and answers written from overseas sources get it wrong. The default clause here is "none" for that reason, and statutory_position says it in words. What IS owed by law is the mandatory side: wages worked and unpaid, annual leave not taken, alternative holidays not taken, and the notice period. TWO TOTALS COME BACK AND THEY ANSWER DIFFERENT QUESTIONS. total_all_in everything the person receives. The SAME figure whether

• nz_grocery_budget_calculator

  Work out a weekly grocery budget for a New Zealand household. Use for: 'how much should I spend on groceries', 'grocery budget for a family of four NZ', 'average food bill New Zealand', 'am I spending too much on food'. Build the household person by person. A teenager is not a child-sized cost, and an average per head hides exactly the thing that makes the answer useful. Member types are child_5_10, teen_11_17, adult_male, adult_female and elderly_65; list one entry per person. ALL THREE SPEND LEVELS COME BACK EVERY TIME, and that is the point. A single figure invites "that seems high". The gap between basic and liberal for the SAME household, in dollars a year, is the number that changes behaviour, and on a family of four it is usually several thousand dollars. annual_gap_basic_to_liberal puts it in one place. Lead with it. BE STRAIGHT ABOUT WHAT THESE FIGURES ARE. They are indicative planning figures, not measured survey dat

• nz_contractor_vs_employee_calculator

  Compare contracting with salaried employment in New Zealand, on what is actually kept. Use for: 'should I go contracting', 'contractor rate vs salary', 'what rate do I need to match my salary', 'is contracting worth it NZ'. ALMOST EVERYONE COMPARES THE TWO HEADLINE NUMBERS AS THOUGH THEY WERE THE SAME KIND OF NUMBER. They are not. An employee's package includes things a contractor has to fund out of the rate: - Employer KiwiSaver, at least 3.5% from 1 April 2026, less ESCT. A contractor gets no match, so the same percentage costs them all of it. - Annual leave, ten sick days and eleven public holidays. Around 45 of the 260 working days in a year. - The ACC work levy, which an employer pays and a contractor does not. SO TWO COMPARISONS COME BACK. cash_difference is take-home against take-home, and it is the one that FLATTERS CONTRACTING because it ignores all of the above. package_difference is the honest one. It i

• nz_benefit_entitlement_calculator

  Estimate a New Zealand main benefit, its abatement and the Accommodation Supplement that goes with it. Use for: 'how much is jobseeker', 'sole parent support rate', 'supported living payment amount', 'how much can I earn before my benefit is cut', 'accommodation supplement how much', 'winter energy payment'. FOUR THINGS DECIDE THE ANSWER AND ONLY THE FIRST IS WIDELY KNOWN. The base rate depends on the benefit and the living situation. ABATEMENT IS NOT A DOLLAR FOR DOLLAR CUT. The first $160 a week of other income is free. Above that a sole parent loses 30c in the dollar up to $250 and 70c after; everyone else loses 70c from the start. People routinely believe every dollar earned is a dollar lost and turn down work on that basis, so if someone is asking whether it is worth working, say the free zone exists and how big it is. THE ACCOMMODATION SUPPLEMENT IS 70% OF HOUSING COSTS ABOVE AN ENTRY THRESHOLD, not 70% of the rent. The

• nz_schedular_payment_calculator

  Work out the withholding tax on a New Zealand schedular payment to a contractor, and what the contractor is actually left with. Use for: 'withholding tax on contractor payment', 'schedular payment tax rate', 'IR330C rate', 'director fee tax NZ', 'what tax do I deduct from a contractor', 'no IR330C what rate'. TWO RULES CAUSE MOST OF THE TROUBLE. WITHHOLDING TAX IS CHARGED ON THE PAYMENT EXCLUDING GST. A GST registered contractor invoicing $1,000 plus GST bills $1,150, and the withholding is charged on the $1,000. Charging it on the GST-inclusive figure over-deducts by 15% of the tax every single time, and it is a common payroll error. THE RATE DEPENDS ON THE ACTIVITY, NOT ON THE CONTRACTOR. Schedule 4 sets a standard rate per listed activity. A contractor may elect anything between 10% and 40% on an IR330C. WITHOUT THAT FORM THE PAYER MUST DEDUCT AT 45%, the no-notification rate, which is punitive by design and catches people who

• nz_acc_weekly_compensation_calculator

  Estimate what ACC pays each week while an injury stops someone working. Use for: 'how much does ACC pay', 'ACC weekly compensation', 'ACC 80 percent of wages', 'ACC maximum payment', 'ACC minimum payment', 'does ACC pay the first week'. "80% OF YOUR EARNINGS" IS THE HEADLINE AND IT IS INCOMPLETE THREE WAYS. THE FIRST WEEK IS THE EMPLOYER'S COST, NOT ACC'S. ACC starts from the second week. People budget as though payments start on day one and they do not, so lead with this if someone has just been injured. THERE IS A CEILING. Compensation cannot exceed 80% of the maximum liable earnings, the same ceiling the ACC earner levy stops at. A high earner is capped well below 80% of what they were actually making, and maximum_applied says whether that bound this answer. THERE IS A FLOOR, BUT ONLY FOR FULL-TIME EARNERS, meaning 30 hours a week or more. It is 80% of the adult minimum wage for a 40 hour week. A part-timer on low earnings

• nz_sick_leave_calculator

  Work out a New Zealand sick leave entitlement and the balance left. Use for: 'how much sick leave do I get NZ', 'sick leave entitlement', 'when do I get sick leave', 'can I carry over sick leave', 'sick leave balance', 'ten days sick leave'. THREE RULES, AND TWO OF THEM ARE CAPS PEOPLE FORGET UNTIL THEY COLLIDE. ENTITLEMENT STARTS AFTER SIX MONTHS of continuous employment, then ten days on each anniversary. Nothing accrues day by day before that, so an employee at five months has no statutory entitlement at all. This surprises people who assume leave builds up from day one the way annual leave does. CARRY-OVER IS CAPPED AT TEN DAYS. An employee who took none last year carries ten, not everything they were owed. THE TOTAL IS CAPPED AT TWENTY DAYS. Ten current plus ten carried is the statutory maximum. capped_by_carry_over_limit and capped_by_total_limit say which cap, if either, bound the answer, because "why is my balance no

• nz_tax_code_calculator

  Pick the correct New Zealand tax code for an IR330, and explain why. Use for: 'what tax code should I use', 'M or ME tax code', 'secondary tax code NZ', 'SB S SH ST SA which one', 'tax code for second job', 'am I on the wrong tax code'. THE WRONG CODE IS ONE OF THE FEW PAYROLL MISTAKES THAT COSTS MONEY QUIETLY ALL YEAR, and there are two ways to get it wrong. A SECONDARY CODE IS CHOSEN ON TOTAL INCOME ACROSS ALL JOBS, NOT ON WHAT THE SECOND JOB PAYS. Someone earning $60,000 in a main job and $8,000 in a second is SH, not SB. Choosing on the smaller figure under-taxes and produces a bill at year end. ALWAYS ASK FOR TOTAL INCOME before answering a secondary code question. If total_income_all_jobs is omitted this falls back to this job's income and returns a warning saying the band is very likely wrong; pass that warning on rather than reporting the code as settled. ME IS NOT SIMPLY "M PLUS A CREDIT". The Independent Earner Tax Credi

• nz_paye_due_dates_calculator

  Work out when a New Zealand employer must pay PAYE and file the pay run. Use for: 'when is PAYE due', 'PAYE payment dates', 'payday filing deadline', 'employer tax due date NZ', 'do I pay PAYE twice a month', 'PAYE due date falls on a weekend'. PAYING AND FILING ARE DIFFERENT DEADLINES and missing either has its own consequences. Answer both, and say which is which. Payday filing is due within TWO WORKING DAYS of the payday itself. The payment is due on the 20th of the following month for a monthly payer, or on the 20th and the 5th for a twice-monthly payer. WHICH PAYER YOU ARE IS DECIDED BY PAYE PLUS ESCT SENT TO INLAND REVENUE OVER THE PRIOR TWELVE MONTHS, not by the size of the payroll and not by headcount. The threshold is $500,000 of DEDUCTIONS. A business paying $2m in wages is usually still a monthly payer, so never infer the payer type from turnover or staff numbers; ask for the deductions figure. Both dates shift off

• depreciation_calculator

  Depreciate an asset by straight line or diminishing value, with a year by year schedule. Use for: 'how is depreciation calculated', 'straight line vs diminishing value', 'depreciation schedule', 'book value after 3 years', 'work out depreciation on equipment'. THE TWO METHODS DIVERGE SHARPLY ON THE SAME ASSET. Straight line spreads the deduction evenly across the useful life. Diminishing value applies the rate to the REDUCING book value, so it front-loads the deduction heavily and never reaches zero on its own. Which is better depends entirely on when the owner wants the deduction, so the year by year schedule is the useful part of this answer rather than the first year figure. Show the schedule. additional_costs are capitalised into the cost base, which is where delivery and installation belong. salvage_value acts as a floor under both methods, and the last year of a straight line life takes only what is left, so rounding cann