Take-home pay calculator NZ 2026-27

How the calculator works it out

New Zealand taxes income in bands. For the 2026-27 tax year the bands are:

Employers don't wait until the end of the year, though. Each payday, payroll software follows Inland Revenue's published method: it multiplies your pay for the period up to a yearly figure and drops the cents, works out the tax on that yearly figure, adds the ACC earners' levy (1.75% of earnings, up to $156,641 a year), divides by 52, then converts that weekly amount to your pay period, cutting off fractions of a cent at each step. This calculator does exactly the same, which is why it matches the amounts in Inland Revenue's printed PAYE tables to the cent.

Student loan repayments are 12% of what you earn above the repayment threshold for each pay period ($928 a fortnight, which is $24,128 a year spread evenly). KiwiSaver is your chosen percentage of gross pay, and your employer must add at least 3.5% on top.

Worked example

Take an invented salary of $65,000 a year, paid fortnightly, with KiwiSaver at the default 3.5% and a student loan. Each fortnight's gross pay is $2,500.00. Over a full year that comes to about $11,720.50 of income tax before ACC. The calculator gives:

• PAYE of $494.52 a fortnight, of which about $43.75 is the ACC levy
• a student loan repayment of $188.64
• a KiwiSaver contribution of $87.50
• take-home pay of $1,729.34 a fortnight, or $44,962.84 over 26 pays

As a check against the official tables: Inland Revenue's weekly table shows $171.50 of PAYE on $1,000.00 a week under code M, and so does this calculator.

Why your pay slip might be different

• A different tax code. Tailored tax codes, special deduction rates and the non-notified rate change the deduction. The calculator covers M, ME and the secondary codes.
• Extra pays. Bonuses, back pay and holiday pay paid as a lump sum are taxed with a separate method, so the payday they arrive on looks different.
• What counts as pay. Taxable allowances add to gross pay; salary sacrifice or unpaid leave reduce it.
• Rounding. Payroll systems may round your gross pay differently when converting an annual salary into pay periods, which can move the answer by a cent or two.
• A temporary KiwiSaver rate reduction, or deductions such as child support, union fees or payroll giving, which this calculator doesn't model.

Choosing a tax code

Use M for your only job or your highest-paying one. ME is the same but includes the independent earner tax credit, worth up to $520 a year if you're a New Zealand tax resident earning between $24,000 and $70,000 and don't get Working for Families, an income-tested benefit or NZ Super. For a second job, pick the secondary code that matches your expected total income from every job: SB, S, SH, ST, SA, from lowest to highest. Add SL if you have a student loan. The page About tax codes (Inland Revenue) explains the full list.

Limits

This is an estimate for ordinary salary or wages in the 2026-27 tax year. It doesn't handle lump sums, schedular payments, tailored codes, child support, or the end-of-year square-up when Inland Revenue checks whether the right amount of tax was taken. GST is a separate tax on prices and doesn't come out of wages. What you type stays in your browser: the pay amount is never saved or sent, and only your settings, such as pay frequency and tax code, are kept in the page address after the # sign.

Last reviewed: 2 October 2026