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Income Tax Act 2007

General collection rules - Employment-related taxes - Introductory provisions

RD 4: Payment of amounts of tax to Commissioner

You could also call this:

“Paying tax collected from workers' pay to the government”

When you work for someone, they usually take out some money from your pay for taxes. This is called withholding tax. The person or company that takes out this money needs to give it to the government.

If you’re an employer, you need to pay this tax money to the government either once a month or twice a month. It depends on how much tax you collect.

If you collect less than $500,000 in tax in a year, you can pay once a month. You need to pay by the 20th day of the next month after you paid your workers.

If you collect more than $500,000 in tax in a year, you need to pay twice a month. The government will tell you the exact dates for these payments.

Sometimes, if the employer doesn’t take out the tax, the worker needs to pay it themselves. They need to pay by the 20th day of the next month after they got paid.

If you have more than one business, you need to add up all the tax from all your businesses when figuring out how much you collect.

Some groups are treated as one employer for this rule. This includes companies that are part of the same group, all partners in a partnership, and people who are in charge of things like trusts or companies that have closed down.

The government can change the $500,000 amount if they need to. They will ask people what they think before they do this.

If you’re not sure about any of this, it’s a good idea to ask an adult or a tax expert for help.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM1519944.

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Part R General collection rules
Employment-related taxes: Introductory provisions

RD 4Payment of amounts of tax to Commissioner

  1. An employer or PAYE intermediary who withholds an amount of tax for a PAYE income payment must pay the amount to the Commissioner as follows:

  2. on a monthly basis, if they are an employer to whom subsection (2) applies:
    1. for 2 payment periods in a month, if paragraph (a) does not apply.

      1. For the purposes of subsection (1)(a), an employer must pay the amount of tax withheld by the 20th day of the month following the month in which the PAYE income payment is made if they are—

      2. an employer who—
        1. is not a new employer; and
          1. has, for the preceding tax year, gross amounts of tax of less than $500,000 withheld under section RA 5(1)(a) and (c) (Tax obligations for employment-related taxes):
          2. a new employer who has, for the current tax year, gross amounts of tax withheld under section RA 5(1)(a) and (c) that total less than $500,000.

            1. An employer to whom subsection (1)(b) applies must pay the amount of tax withheld to the Commissioner by the dates referred to in section RA 15(2) (Payment dates for interim and other tax payments).

            2. If some or all of the amount of tax for a PAYE income payment is not withheld under subsection (1), the employee in relation to whom the payment is required to have been made must pay to the Commissioner under section RD 21 an amount equal to the amount of tax by the 20th day of the month following the month in which the PAYE income payment was made.

            3. For the purposes of determining whether a threshold referred to in subsection (2)(a)(ii) and (b) is reached, if the employer ends their business and starts a new business, or operates 2 or more businesses at the same time, all amounts of tax withheld must be aggregated.

            4. For the purposes of this section, the following are treated as 1 employer:

            5. 2 or more companies if they are part of a group of companies at a time in the relevant tax year:
              1. all partners in a partnership:
                1. all persons in whom property has become vested, or to whom the control of property has passed in the case of—
                  1. an estate of a deceased person; or
                    1. a trustee of a trust; or
                      1. a company in liquidation; or
                        1. an assigned estate; or
                          1. another fiduciary relationship.

                          2. The Governor-General may, on the recommendation of the Minister of Revenue, make an Order in Council amending the threshold amount referred to in subsection (2). Before making the recommendation, the Minister must undertake consultation on the proposed amendment that is appropriate and reasonable for the purposes of this section.

                          3. An Order in Council under subsection (7) is secondary legislation (see Part 3 of the Legislation Act 2019 for publication requirements).

                          Notes
                          • Section RD 4: replaced, on , by section 189 of the Taxation (Annual Rates for 2017–18, Employment and Investment Income, and Remedial Matters) Act 2018 (2018 No 5).
                          • Section RD 4(8): inserted, on , by section 3 of the Secondary Legislation Act 2021 (2021 No 7).