Tax back from a summer or part-time job: how the automatic refund works in New Zealand

Why a short job takes too much tax

New Zealand's income tax rises in bands across the whole tax year, from 1 April to 31 March: 10.5% on the first $15,600, 17.5% up to $53,500, then 30%, 33% and 39%. PAYE cannot know how long a job will last, so it works out each week's tax as if that week's pay carried on for 52 weeks. For a job that lasts a summer, that puts too much of your pay in the higher band.

A made-up example, at 2026/27 rates, assuming no other income and no tax credits. Tom works a summer job from December to February, 12 weeks at $1,000 a week, on the M tax code. PAYE treats $1,000 a week as $52,000 a year, which carries $8,008 of income tax, so about $154 comes off each week: $1,848 over the summer. But Tom only earned $12,000 that tax year, all of it in the 10.5% band, and the tax due on it is $1,260. About $588 too much has been deducted.

The ACC earners' levy, 1.75% or $17.50 a week, is charged on what you actually earn, so it does not come back. And the refund shrinks if you earned more elsewhere in the same tax year, such as a part-time job during semester, because the bands are filled by your total income.

The automatic assessment: when it comes and how the refund arrives

Inland Revenue sends an income tax assessment if your only income was salary, wages or investment income already taxed, such as bank interest. It shows whether you paid the right amount, are due a refund or have tax to pay. Employers report every pay to Inland Revenue, so it already has the figures.

Inland Revenue says it starts issuing assessments from the last weekend in May and continues into June and July. For the year that ended on 31 March 2026, that window has passed, so your assessment for it should be in myIR now. Tom's summer of December 2026 to February 2027 falls in the year ending 31 March 2027, assessed from late May 2027.

A refund is paid into the bank account Inland Revenue has on file when it processes your assessment, and Inland Revenue says it should be in your account within a few days. If it has no account for you, it will tell you, and you can add one in myIR. Check the assessment before you leave it: if a job is missing or a figure is wrong, tell Inland Revenue. If you earned anything that was not taxed before you were paid, such as self-employed work, you file a return instead of getting an automatic assessment.

The ND rate and the wrong secondary code

Two mistakes take far more than the band rates, and both are fixed with a tax code declaration (IR330) to your employer.

No code at all. If you do not give your employer a completed IR330, it must deduct tax at the non-notified rate of 45%, plus the earners' levy. It is common on a first day when the form gets forgotten. The excess is part of what the assessment squares up, but you wait months for it, so hand the form in before your first pay.

A secondary code on your only job. Secondary codes are for a second job, and each takes one flat rate from every dollar:

Had Tom's summer job been your only job but on the S code, $2,100 would have come off at 17.5%, $840 more than the $1,260 due. If you do have two jobs, the main one uses M and the other a secondary code picked by your total income; our article on secondary tax with two jobs explains how to choose. Inland Revenue can also change your code if it is not suitable for you.

Student loan deductions on a holiday job

With a student loan, your code has SL on the end, and 12% of what you earn over $464 a week comes off each pay. The annual threshold is $24,128. On $1,000 a week, that is $64.32 a week, about $772 over Tom's 12 weeks, even though he ends the year well under $24,128.

This is the one that does not come back like tax. Deductions made correctly in each pay count towards your loan, and they are not refunded because your year's income ended up under the threshold. Inland Revenue's refunds of over-deducted repayments are for a significant over-deduction, more than $70 a month, such as an employer's mistake, and not one that came from your own choice of code. You ask for those in myIR; they are not automatic.

The fix is to act before the job starts. If you are studying full time, or about to, and expect to earn under $24,128 from all sources in the year, you can apply in myIR for a repayment deduction exemption: choose "Apply for a reduced deduction rate" in your student loan account. It runs from the day you apply to 31 March, so apply again each year. On a secondary code with SL, 12% comes off every dollar from that job, with no threshold, which the same exemption can also cover. Our guide to working while studying covers student allowances and work alongside study.

Match your own hours and pay to the income summary

The assessment is only as right as what your employers reported. In myIR, the income summary lists each employer with your gross income, the PAYE deducted and any student loan deducted, for any period back to 1 April 2015. Before you accept the assessment, check it against your payslips:

• every job is there, including a two-week Christmas casual you had forgotten;
• the gross pay matches the hours you worked at your rate;
• the tax code on your payslips is the one you meant to give.

If a pay is missing or wrong, ask the employer to correct what it filed. That is far easier with your own record of the hours you worked, kept at the time rather than rebuilt from memory in May. Your Timesheets keeps that record free on every plan: a week grid or a timer for each place you work, start and finish times and a note on each day, and the history of every change.

Keep your own count of the hours