Working from NZ for an overseas employer: tax, ACC and KiwiSaver before you accept

Who deducts your tax when the employer is overseas

A New Zealand employer takes PAYE out of your pay and sends it to Inland Revenue. An overseas employer may not. Inland Revenue says a non-resident employer with staff working here must register as an employer if it has a sufficient presence in New Zealand, or if it gives you non-cash benefits or pays into a superannuation fund for you (unless it is documented that you will handle that tax yourself).

If your employer does not need to register, Inland Revenue says that you, living in New Zealand, need to register as an IR56 worker: someone who pays their own taxes on their wage or salary. You do not need to if the employer registers anyway, or arranges for someone else to run its New Zealand payroll for you. Ask which it will be before you accept, because it decides who does the work every month.

As an IR56 worker, you:

• register in myIR, under "Register as an Employer (EMP) or IR56 worker", with your IRD number, start date and an industry classification code;
• work out the PAYE and other deductions on each month's pay using your tax code, as an employer would;
• file your employment information within 10 working days of the end of the month you were paid;
• pay the PAYE and deductions to Inland Revenue by the 20th of the following month.

Your pay arrives gross, so set the tax aside the day it lands. Non-cash benefits count too: Inland Revenue says health insurance or other perks from an overseas employer are included as income in your monthly return, and shares given free or below market value are employment income.

ACC and KiwiSaver without a New Zealand employer

ACC. Inland Revenue's IR56 guide says the ACC earners' levy, which covers injuries outside work, is included in the PAYE you calculate, at 1.75% of earnings up to $156,641 in 2026/27. It also says IR56 workers pay an ACC employer levy for work-related injuries, which ACC invoices to you. A New Zealand employer would pay that levy itself, so ask ACC what yours is likely to be.

KiwiSaver. In New Zealand, employers make a compulsory minimum contribution of 3.5% of your pay into KiwiSaver. Inland Revenue says a New Zealand-based employee of an overseas employer is not entitled to compulsory employer contributions. You can still contribute: if you are not already a member, you join by contracting directly with a KiwiSaver provider, and you deduct your contributions from your pay and include them with your monthly PAYE. Once you are in, you cannot opt out, although your provider can arrange a contribution break.

The missing employer contribution is real money. On a $110,000 salary, 3.5% is $3,850 a year before employer superannuation contribution tax. If the overseas employer will pay into a superannuation scheme for you instead, that contribution has its own tax rules, and the employer may then need to register.

Employee or contractor: what a contract offer changes

Some overseas companies offer a contract rather than employment. Inland Revenue's IR56 guide says that if you are self-employed under a contract for service with the overseas business, you do not register as an IR56 worker. You are in business, and the obligations are different:

• Income tax at year end. No tax is taken from your invoices, so you file a return and pay the tax yourself. If the tax left to pay on your last return was more than $5,000, you pay provisional tax during the following year.
• GST. You must register if your turnover was at least $60,000 in the last 12 months, or you expect it to be in the next 12. Ask Inland Revenue how GST applies to services you supply to a client overseas before you set your invoices up.
• ACC levies. Self-employed people pay their own. On ACC's standard cover, the invoice arrives after you file your tax return, usually in September, and the first one usually comes in your second year.
• No paid leave and no employment protections. Employment New Zealand says contractors have no employment agreement, are not covered by most employment laws or the Employment Relations Act 2000, and cannot bring a personal grievance.

Since 21 February 2026, the Employment Relations Act's gateway test says a worker is a contractor if they have a written agreement saying so, can work for others, can choose when to work or subcontract, can turn down extra work without losing the arrangement, and had a reasonable chance to get independent advice before signing. If a contract says you are a contractor, take that chance.

All of this means a contract rate must be well above the salary it replaces, to cover tax you pay later, levies, holidays, sick days and the months between contracts. Our article on contract rates against a salary works through how much higher.

Which employment law applies, and what to ask for

An employment agreement from an overseas company may say it is governed by the law of the employer's country. Section 238 of the Employment Relations Act 2000 says the Act's provisions apply despite anything to the contrary in a contract. Whether a New Zealand court or the Employment Relations Authority would apply New Zealand minimums to your job depends on the facts, so treat it as uncertain and get the protections written into the agreement. Before you sign, ask:

• Who runs the tax? Will the employer register in New Zealand, use someone to run a New Zealand payroll, or leave it to you as an IR56 worker?
• What currency, and who carries the exchange rate? A salary in Australian or US dollars changes in New Zealand dollars every pay day.
• Which holidays and leave? Ask for annual leave, sick leave and New Zealand public holidays in writing, rather than the employer's own country's.
• What hours, in which time zone? Meetings at 3am New Zealand time are a cost too.
• What notice, and how disputes are handled? Know how either of you can end the job, and where.
• Equipment and expenses: who provides the laptop, the internet and the desk.

Employment New Zealand is the place to start if you are unsure about your rights, and a lawyer is worth the cost for a large offer. Our article on finding genuinely remote jobs covers where these roles are advertised and how to spot the real ones.

A worked comparison against a New Zealand salary

Say you have two offers: a New Zealand employer at $110,000, and an overseas company employing you directly at a salary that converts to NZ$120,000 at today's exchange rate. The overseas employer will not register, so you would be an IR56 worker paying the same PAYE and ACC earners' levy as anyone on that salary. Assume 2026/27 PAYE, the ACC earners' levy of 1.75% (capped at $156,641), KiwiSaver at 3.5% in both jobs, the M tax code and no student loan.

• New Zealand offer, $110,000: take-home pay of $78,048 a year, plus an employer KiwiSaver contribution of $3,850 before tax on it.
• Overseas offer, NZ$120,000: take-home pay of $84,223 a year, with no employer KiwiSaver contribution. Each month, about $2,631 of the gross pay goes aside for PAYE including the ACC earners' levy, and $350 for your own KiwiSaver.

The overseas offer looks $10,000 higher. In take-home pay it is $6,175 higher, and once the New Zealand employer's KiwiSaver contribution is counted, the gap is $2,325 before the tax on that contribution. The ACC employer levy invoiced to you as an IR56 worker narrows it again.

Then the exchange rate moves. If the foreign currency falls 5% against the New Zealand dollar, the same salary converts to NZ$114,000, which takes home $80,518. That is $1,380 less than the New Zealand offer's $78,048 plus its $3,850 KiwiSaver contribution. A $10,000 headline difference can disappear on a currency move you cannot control.

To try your own figures, convert the overseas salary at the rate on the day, then enter both salaries in the Offer Comparer. It shows what lands in your account after PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver and student loan, and counts employer KiwiSaver, leave and perks, so you can set each one to what the offer really includes.

Weigh the offer with the real numbers