Employer Contributions

Employer Contributions

From 1 April 2008, all employees who have attained age 18 contributing to KiwiSaver (and complying superannuation funds) are entitled to a matching employer contribution subject to any offsets for employer contributions to other superannuation arrangements that may be available.  The compulsory contribution is not scaled to increase in future years and is as follows:

* Prior to 1 April 2009, the minimum employee contribution was 4% (although this could have included a voluntary employer contribution element).  It became optional to reduce to 2% from this date.

Subsidies for Employers 

• All employer contributions to an employee's KiwiSaver scheme or complying superannuation fund were eligible for a matching employer tax credit of up to $20 per week per employee from 1 April 2008, payable to the employer. This matching tax credit ceased effective 1 April 2009.
• Employer tax credits were paid to employers through the PAYE system by offsetting the credit against the employer's contribution and other PAYE liabilities to minimise cashflow impacts and compliance costs. The employer tax credit ceased from 1 April 2009.

Employer contributions to alternative schemes that are not complying funds will count towards the compulsory employer matching contributions where these contributions matched those of an employee.   Employers were not, however, eligible for the employer tax credit on these contributions.