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Income Tax Act 2007

Tax credits paid in cash - General provisions

MA 7: Meaning of full-time earner and earner for family scheme

You could also call this:

“Defining who qualifies as a full-time worker or earner for family tax credits”

When you’re thinking about family tax credits, there are two important terms you need to know: “full-time earner” and “earner”. These terms help decide if you can get these credits.

A full-time earner is someone who works at least 20 hours a week if they don’t have a partner. If they do have a partner, the couple needs to work at least 30 hours a week between them.

An earner is simply someone who has a job, or whose partner has a job, or both of them have jobs.

There are some special rules too. If you work longer than a week at a time, they assume you work the same amount each day. If you get hurt and can’t work, but you would have been working otherwise, they still count you as working. If you’re getting payments for donating an organ, they count that as if you were working. If you’re on parental leave or getting payments for a preterm baby, they count that as working too. Even if you’re getting money because your partner died while working, they count that as if you’re working the hours your partner would have worked.

These rules also cover people who are injured from an accident or from serving in the military. If you’re getting payments because of these injuries, they might still count you as working.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1518419.

Topics:
Money and consumer rights > Taxes
Family and relationships > Children and parenting
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Part M Tax credits paid in cash
General provisions

MA 7Meaning of full-time earner and earner for family scheme

  1. In subparts MB to MG and MZ, a full-time earner means a person who, for a week,—

  2. is employed for 20 hours or more and does not have a spouse, civil union partner, or de facto partner during the week; or
    1. has a spouse, civil union partner, or de facto partner (the partner) during the week, and either the person or the partner or both of them in total are employed for 30 hours or more.

      1. In subparts MB to MG and MZ, an earner means a person who, for a week—

      2. is employed during the week; or
        1. has a spouse, civil union partner, or de facto partner (the partner) during the week and the partner or both of them are employed during the week.

          1. For the purposes of subsections (1) and (1B),—

          2. a person who is employed in a pay period that is longer than 1 week is treated as undertaking the employment activities to a uniform daily extent for the period:
            1. a person who is employed becomes incapacitated as described in subsection (3) and is unable to undertake employment in a week in which but for the incapacity they would be employed as provided by subsection (1B)(a) and (b) or would be employed for the number of hours set out in subsection (1)(a) and (b) is treated as having been employed or as having been employed for the hours referred to, as the case may be:
              1. a person who has a payment period under the Compensation for Live Organ Donors Act 2016 and is employed at the start of the period is treated as being employed during the period for the hours for which the person would have been employed during the period but for the organ donation:
                1. a person is treated as employed in any week in relation to which the person receives parental leave payments or preterm baby payments under Part 7A of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act 1987 for the number of hours that the person would have worked in a week that the person normally worked in their last period of employment before that week:
                  1. a person who receives or will receive weekly compensation from the Accident Compensation Corporation, Veterans' Affairs New Zealand, or both, as a surviving spouse or partner of a deceased claimant is treated as being employed, during the week to which that compensation relates, for the number of hours that the deceased claimant would have been employed for in a week before dying, but for their incapacity. The number of hours under this paragraph are in addition to the person's own hours.

                    1. The incapacity referred to in subsection (2)(b) and (d) is an incapacity due to—

                    2. personal injury by accident for which an accident compensation earnings-related payment has been, is being, or will be paid:
                      1. a service-related (as defined in section 7 of the Veterans’ Support Act 2014) injury, illness, condition, or whole-person impairment for which a payment has been, is being, or will be paid, under the Veterans’ Support Act 2014, and the payment is—
                        1. weekly income compensation paid under Part 3, subpart 4 of that Act:
                          1. weekly compensation paid under Part 4, subpart 5 of that Act:
                            1. weekly compensation or aggregated payments, as applicable, paid under schedule 2, part 4, clause 54 or 55 of that Act.

                            Compare
                            • 2004 No 35 s OB 1 full-time earner
                            Notes
                            • Section MA 7 heading: amended, on , by section 17(1) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(1) heading: replaced, on , by section 17(2) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(1): amended, on , by section 9 of the Families Package (Income Tax and Benefits) Act 2017 (2017 No 51).
                            • Section MA 7(1B) heading: inserted, on , by section 17(3) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(1B): inserted, on , by section 17(3) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(2): amended, on , by section 17(4) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(2): amended (with effect on 1 April 2008), on , by section 349(1) of the Taxation (International Taxation, Life Insurance, and Remedial Matters) Act 2009 (2009 No 34).
                            • Section MA 7(2)(b): replaced, on , by section 17(5) of the COVID-19 Response (Taxation and Social Assistance Urgent Measures) Act 2020 (2020 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(2)(bb): inserted, on , by section 30 of the Compensation for Live Organ Donors Act 2016 (2016 No 96).
                            • Section MA 7(2)(c): replaced, on , by section 83 of the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 8).
                            • Section MA 7(2)(d): inserted (with effect on 1 April 2008), on , by section 120(1) of the Taxation (Annual Rates, Returns Filing, and Remedial Matters) Act 2012 (2012 No 88).
                            • Section MA 7(2)(d): amended, on , by section 278 of the Veterans' Support Act 2014 (2014 No 56).
                            • Section MA 7(3): replaced, on , by section 13 of the Taxation (KiwiSaver HomeStart and Remedial Matters) Act 2015 (2015 No 40).
                            • Section MA 7 list of defined terms employment: inserted (with effect on 1 April 2008), on , by section 349(3) of the Taxation (International Taxation, Life Insurance, and Remedial Matters) Act 2009 (2009 No 34).