At present, New Zealand employers file their reports consisting of details of employee earnings, PAYE (withholding) and Kiwi Saver information, on a monthly basis. That is about to change.
Payday filing will become mandatory from April 2019 and if you employee a New Zealand workforce you will have to file these reports at the end of each pay period. That means that if you are on a weekly payroll in New Zealand, you will need to file the reports on a weekly basis.
Inland Revenue is of the belief that if it collects the payroll information more regularly, it will provide more certainty about employees tax obligations and entitlements.
At present, a New Zealand employer that pays more than $50,000 in PAYE withholdings and Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT) per annum will file electronically through either payroll software or there myIR portal from 1 April 2019. Smaller New Zealand employers will then join the payday filing regime.
Online filing can be done in a number of ways:
- Direct from payroll software; or
- by uploading correctly formatted files in myIR; or
- manually entering the information on screen and their myIR portal.
Dedicated New Zealand payroll software is probably the easiest because all of the required information including salary, wages, PAYE withholdings, Kiwi Saver and other deductions, are automatically sent to Inland Revenue at the same time that employees are paid.
Furthermore, filing direct from dedicated payroll software relieves you of the need to contact Inland Revenue in order to register. The software will automatically register you for online filing during its first submission of New Zealand payroll information.
If you are particularly keen, you can start that process now but once you are in you are there to stay. You cannot opt out.
If you are not using the dedicated payroll software to submit the payroll reports you will need to register. You can call Inland Revenue (good luck on that). Inland Revenue will then register you and work through the process to ensure you are clear.
You should note that the dates for payment of the withholdings will remain the same. Deductions for pay periods paid this month will be due on the 20th of the following month (or the next working day when the 20th falls on a weekend).
As usual, we strongly recommend you download our free app where you can save appropriate tax dates to your diary or receive a free reminder from us when each of your New Zealand tax payments is due. You simply choose the New Zealand tax payment types that you want reminders for.
For clients who engage us to handle their payroll, just leave it to us. We handle all of the registration and filing of required reports for you.
The information in this article is indicative only, not intended to be complete for all intents or purposes and does not constitute advice. It is recommended that you obtain professional advice, suited to your particular circumstances, from us before acting on anything you read.