NZ income tax rates 2026/27, 2025/26 and 2024/25 explained

New Zealand has five personal income tax rates, applied in bands to your taxable income for the tax year from 1 April to 31 March. The thresholds moved on 31 July 2024, which is why 2024/25 has an unusual set of composite rates, while 2025/26 and the current 2026/27 year share the same table. This guide sets out each year, shows the tax at the top of every band, and walks through the sum so you can check any figure yourself.

Income tax rates for 2026/27

These are the rates for the current tax year, 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. They come from Inland Revenue's payroll specification for 2026/27 and match its tax rates for individuals page.

Each rate applies only to the part of your income inside its band. Someone earning $60,000 pays 10.5% on the first $15,600, 17.5% on the next $37,900 and 30% on the last $6,500. They do not pay 30% on all $60,000. Our guide to effective and marginal tax rates goes into that in more depth.

The rates are for New Zealand tax residents. They are the same whether your income is wages, self-employed profit, rent or interest: all of it is added together into one taxable income.

Tax at the top of each band

Knowing the total tax at each threshold saves a lot of arithmetic. Once you know which band your income falls in, you only need to work out the tax on the part above the threshold and add it to the figure for that threshold.

These are the same totals Inland Revenue prints in the tax table of its IR3G return guide for 2026, which covers the 2025/26 year. The 39% band has no top, so there is no figure for it.

IRD writes the method as a formula: tax equals (taxable income minus the threshold) times the band rate, plus the tax at the threshold. In short, (income − A) × B + C, where A is the bottom of your band, B its rate and C the tax up to A.

Income tax rates for 2025/26, and what changed in 2024

The 2025/26 tax year, 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026, used exactly the same rates and thresholds as 2026/27. If you are checking last year's assessment, the two tables above apply unchanged.

The current thresholds took effect on 31 July 2024. Before then, the five rates were the same but the bands were narrower:

The top threshold of $180,000 did not move. Every threshold below it rose.

Other rates that track income moved too. Resident withholding tax on interest uses the same bands as income tax, and banks switched from the old bands to the new ones on 31 July 2024. The thresholds in the prescribed investor rate test for PIE funds changed with effect from 1 April 2025, to $15,600, $53,500 and $78,100. The bands for employer superannuation contribution tax (ESCT), which applies to your employer's KiwiSaver contributions, also changed from 1 April 2025, to $18,720, $64,200, $93,720 and $216,000. If any of those were set years ago and your income has changed since, it is worth checking them against the current tables.

The 2024/25 composite rates

Because the thresholds changed four months into the 2024/25 tax year, that year needed special treatment. During the year, PAYE followed the payment date: pay made before 31 July 2024 used the old thresholds, and pay from 31 July used the new ones. At the end of the year, Inland Revenue worked out tax on the whole year's income with a single set of composite rates that blend the two. Tax Information Bulletin Vol 36 No 7 says these are used for end-of-year calculations such as the year-end square-up.

The odd-looking rates, 12.82%, 21.64% and 30.99%, sit in the stretches between an old threshold and a new one. Those are the slices of income that were taxed at the higher rate for part of the year and the lower rate for the rest.

Use these only for the 2024/25 annual figure: an IR3, an assessment, or a check of either. They were never used for PAYE on a payslip. The independent earner tax credit for 2024/25 is also split, by days rather than rates; see the IETC guide.

The same income across three years

Because 2024/25 was partly taxed on the old, narrower bands, the same income attracted slightly more tax that year.

At $75,000 the difference between 2024/25 and later years is $314.32. From $78,100 upward it levels off at $345.01, because every income above that point has passed through all the bands that changed. The $75,000 figure for 2024/25 matches the method in Inland Revenue's own example of a $75,000 earner in the Tax Information Bulletin.

These are income tax only, before any tax credits. They are not take-home pay.

How to work out your own tax

Here is the sum Inland Revenue does at the end of the year, simplified for a typical person.

1. Add up your income for the tax year from every source: wages, self-employed profit, net rent, gross interest and gross dividends. Take off allowable expenses and any losses brought forward. The result is your taxable income, in whole dollars.
2. Find your band in the table for that year.
3. Apply the formula. Take the threshold at the bottom of your band from your income, multiply by the band rate, and add the tax at that threshold.
4. Take off tax credits, such as the independent earner tax credit and imputation credits on dividends. Your tax cannot go below zero this way.
5. Take off tax already paid: PAYE (income tax only, not the ACC levy), RWT on interest and dividends, and any provisional tax. What is left is your bill or, if it is negative, your refund.

Example: Hine has taxable income of $95,000 in 2026/27. That is in the 33% band, which starts above $78,100 with $15,650.50 of tax at the threshold. Her income above the threshold is $16,900, and 33% of that is $5,577.00. Her income tax is $15,650.50 plus $5,577.00, which is $21,227.50.

A second example, with a credit. Sione earns $45,000 in 2026/27 and qualifies for the independent earner tax credit all year. Tax on $45,000 is $6,783.00. Taking off the $520 credit leaves $6,263.00.

And one from 2024/25, using the composite table. Inland Revenue's provisional tax guide (IR289) has an example of a person with taxable income of $62,400 from a salary and self-employment. In the composite table that income sits in the 30% band, which starts above $53,500 with $8,535.32 of tax at the threshold. The $8,900 above the threshold adds $2,670.00, for a total of $11,205.32, which is the figure IRD prints. The same income in 2026/27 would be taxed on the current table instead, so always check which year's table you are using before you compare.

Step 5 is where refunds and bills come from; our guide to a tax refund or bill explains the usual reasons. If you would rather not do the sum by hand, the tax calculator does all five steps for 2024/25, 2025/26 or 2026/27.

What these rates leave out

Income tax is the biggest deduction from most incomes but not the only one. For employees in 2026/27:

• ACC earners' levy is 1.75% of liable earnings up to $156,641, a maximum of $2,741.22. It is collected through PAYE but it is not income tax. Self-employed people are invoiced for it by ACC instead.
• Student loan repayments are 12% of income over $24,128 for the year.
• KiwiSaver contributions come out of pay at the rate you choose, with 3.5% the default for 2026/27.

Investment income has its own withholding rates. RWT on interest uses the same five rates as income tax and is meant to match yours. PIE funds use a prescribed investor rate of 10.5%, 17.5% or 28%. See interest and RWT and PIR explained.

Questions people ask

What are the NZ income tax rates for 2026/27?

10.5% on income up to $15,600, 17.5% from $15,601 to $53,500, 30% from $53,501 to $78,100, 33% from $78,101 to $180,000 and 39% over $180,000.

Did the tax rates change for 2025/26?

No. 2025/26 used the same rates and thresholds as 2026/27. The thresholds last changed on 31 July 2024.

What are the 2024/25 composite tax rates?

They are the rates Inland Revenue used for the 2024/25 year-end calculation, including 12.82% from $14,001 to $15,600, 21.64% from $48,001 to $53,500 and 30.99% from $70,001 to $78,100, to reflect the threshold change partway through the year.

Is there a tax-free threshold in NZ?

No. The 10.5% rate applies from the first dollar of taxable income, in 2026/27 as in earlier years.

How much tax do I pay on $75,000 in NZ?

In 2026/27, income tax on $75,000 is $14,720.50 before any tax credits. In 2024/25 it was $15,034.82 because of the composite rates.