My obligations as an employer

What are my employer KiwiSaver obligations?

KiwiSaver is a work-based retirement savings initiative, set up by the government to help New Zealanders save towards their retirement.

As an employer you need to make KiwiSaver available to your employees, and meet a number of other associated requirements.

• If an employee is contributing to KiwiSaver, generally you’ll also need to contribute a minimum of 3% of their gross salary or wages.
• Inland Revenue’s KiwiSaver information pack should be given to new employees who qualify, and existing employees who wish to opt in.
• You must send the names, addresses and IRD numbers of new employees to Inland Revenue.
• You’ll need to accept opt-out requests from employees, notify Inland Revenue, and refund employees who have opted out of KiwiSaver any contributions they have made.
• You’ll also need to action savings suspension requests when notified by Inland Revenue.

Find out more by visiting the Inland Revenue website.

Helping employees to help themselves

If an employee is contributing part of their gross salary or wages to KiwiSaver, or a complying fund, you also need to contribute at least 3%, as long as they:

• have reached age 18
• have not reached their qualifying date
• are eligible for compulsory employer contributions.

You may also choose to contribute for any employee, even if they don’t meet the criteria above.

As an extra benefit, you can choose to contribute at a higher rate, including matching your employee contributions at a rate of either 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of their gross pay.

KiwiSaver employer contributions need to be paid within your PAYE system.

As an employer you can allow changes to the employee contribution rate once every three months, or more frequently if you wish.

Find out more about KiwiSaver for Employees.