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Need help working this out?

The easiest way is to combine the employee's annual salary or wage with your gross annual employer contributions. This is easy if the employee worked the entire previous tax year as you'll know these numbers.

If the employee worked only part (or none) of the previous tax year, the ESCT rate is the estimate of their total salary or wage, plus the employer contributions you'll make to them in the current income year.

To help work our your employee's ESCT rate visit the IR website.

Any ESCT amounts will be automatically included when you process the employee’s pay, based on your selections on the the KiwiSaver tab for each employee.

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New Zealand only

When adding an employee, you can set up their KiwiSaver contributions via the KiwiSaver tab (Payroll menu > Employees > click the employee > KiwiSaver tab).

KiwiSaver contributions are divided into two portions:

Employee contributions - these are deducted from the employee’s pay
Employer contributions - these are paid by the employer on top of the employee’s pay, and are subject to Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT).

Active and inactive KiwiSaver members

All new employees should be automatically enrolled in KiwiSaver (see exceptions). They can opt out of KiwiSaver by completing a KS10 form and sending it to the IRD Inland Revenue (IR) within two weeks of starting employment.

Employees not enrolled in KiwiSaver can opt-in by completing a KS2 form and sending it to the IRDIR. Learn more about opting in and out of KiwiSaver.

Under 18 or over 65? See the FAQs below.

Contribution holidays

Employees apply for a contribution holiday by sending a KS2 form to the IRDIR. You will be notified if a contribution holiday is granted, either by the IRD IR or by the employee. During a contribution holiday, you need to stop deducting KiwiSaver contributions from the employee’s pay, and you are not required to make any employer contributions.

You will be notified when the contributions holiday ends and you need to resume contributions.

Contribution rate

For all active KiwiSaver members, a percentage of pay must be deducted for KiwiSaver contributions. The minimum legal contribution is 3% of an employee’s pay, but they may choose to contribute either 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% instead. Your employee will inform you if they want to change their contribution rate.

Employer contribution rate

If your employee is an active KiwiSaver member, you are required to make employer KiwiSaver contributions of at least 3% of the employee’s pay. These contributions are subject to Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT).

If your employee is on a contributions holiday, you are not required to make any employer contributions, but you may still choose to do so.

Employer Superannuation Contributions Tax (ESCT)

All employer contributions are subject to ESCT. The amount of ESCT to be paid on your employer KiwiSaver contributions depends on your employee’s annual salary.

Use the dropdowns dropdown on the KiwiSaver tab of the Employee record to select the appropriate rate, based on the employee’s expected annual salary.

If the employee is expected to earn

the ESCT rate is

Up to $16,800

10.5%

$16,801 to $57,600

17.5%

$57,601 to $84,000

30%

Over $84,000

33%

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<h2><i class="fa fa-comments"></i>&nbsp;&nbsp;FAQs</h2><br>

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title	What if an employee is under 18 or over 65?

An employee under 18 or over 65 can elect to contribute to KiwiSaver, but the employer is not required to contribute. In MYOB Essentials, if the employee has a contribution rate you can't set the employer contribution to 0%, but here's a workaround:

Open the employee's KiwiSaver settings (Payroll menu > Employees > click the employee's name > KiwiSaver tab).
For the KiwiSaver status, choose On suspension savings.
Set the employer Contribution rate to 0%.
Change the KiwiSaver status back to Active member.
Set the employee Contribution rate to the desired percentage and leave the employer Contribution rate at 0%.
Click Save.

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title	What if an employee is employed for less than 28 days?

Usually, you don't automatically enrol temporary employees you’re employing for 28 days or less. For all the details, visit the IR website.

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Old Version 19

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Active and inactive KiwiSaver members

Contribution holidays

Contribution rate

Employer contribution rate

Employer Superannuation Contributions Tax (ESCT)

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