What you pay for your employees
If you have employees, you’ll deduct ACC Earners’ Levies from their wages as part of their PAYE payments.
This levy covers people for injuries that happen outside of work, for example while playing sport or at home.
If your employee gets injured and can’t work, you pay their first week of wages.
The amount deducted is based on how much your employees earn.
What your business pays
All businesses pay levies to ACC to cover the cost of work-related injuries. This provides cover for you, or your staff if there’s an accidental injury at work.
The levies go towards treatment and getting back to work as quickly as possible.
You'll pay for:
- ACC workplace cover – the Work levy
- Working Safer Levy – this is collected on behalf of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to support WorkSafe NZ’s activities.
You’ll receive a provisional invoice with an estimated levy and a year-end adjustment.
How it's calculated
How much your business pays depends on:
- your business description – this is assigned an ACC classification unit
- how much you pay your employees
- your claims history – the number of work-related injury claims your business has made.
You can work out how much your levy is likely to be using ACC's levy calculators.
Classification units
These are used to set levy rates for different industries with different levels of risk.
ACC assigns your business a classification unit (CU) based on your Business Industry Classification (BIC) code. You choose a BIC code based on your main work activity when you register for GST or submit a tax return.
ACC’s classification units group together businesses with similar levels of risk to decide the levy rate you pay, and to share the cost of injuries fairly.
Liable earnings
Liable earnings are the part of your payroll that levies are payable on. Things like holiday pay and overtime are liable earnings, but redundancy and retirement payments are not. How much your liable earnings are depends on how much you pay your employees.
What you pay if you’re self-employed
When you start out as a sole trader, you’re automatically on ACC’s CoverPlus. What you pay will be based on the type of work you do and your liable earnings.
You can choose to change to CoverPlus Extra (CPX), which gives you more control over how much of your income you want ACC to cover.
If you're on CoverPlus, your invoice will arrive after you've filed your annual tax return with Inland Revenue, usually in September.
If you're signed up for CPX, you will receive an invoice in April each year, based on your agreed level of cover.
Invoices
You’ll be invoiced for ACC levies once a year. ACC invoices you for the following levies:
- ACC workplace cover – the Work levy
- non-work injury cover – the Earners’ levy
- Working Safer levy – this is collected on behalf of MBIE to support WorkSafe NZ’s activities.
Getting paid if you can't work
ACC will pay up to 80% of your income if you're unable to work because of an injury that’s covered by ACC. This means you'll still get paid while you recover.
What you get paid depends on the type of cover you have and what you earn. ACC calculates the compensation based on income from your last self-employed tax return.
MyACC for business
MyACC for Business is ACC’s online platform that helps New Zealand business owners and sole traders manage their levy accounts. You can update your details, view and pay levy invoices and access claims reports.
It's designed to give you control, save time, and ensure your ACC information is accurate and up to date.
How to reduce your ACC Work levy
As a business, you'll automatically join the No Claims Discount or the Experience Rating Programme. The programme you'll join depends on how much your Work levy is every year, over a three-year period.
ACC will work out whether you'll get a discount, a loading, or if your Work levy will stay the same.
Invoicing
Your invoice if you're an employer or shareholder-employer
You’ll usually get your first ACC levy invoice after you file your tax return with Inland Revenue. After that, you’ll be invoiced once a year, usually in July.
You'll get:
- provisional levy invoice for the current year – this is an estimate based on your previous year’s liable earnings and any wages or salaries you expect to pay in the coming year
- levy adjustment for the previous year – if you paid less than you should have for the previous year, ACC will send you an invoice for the difference; if you paid more, you’ll get a credit applied to your account.
If your circumstances change, ask ACC to reassess your levy calculation. Fill in an ACC4618 form and send it to ACC as soon as possible.
You’ll need to pay your levy by the due date on the invoice, even if you’re waiting for a reassessment.
Your invoice if you're self-employed
If you’re new to being self-employed, your invoice will be triggered when you file your first individual income tax return. This is usually in your second year of business.
After that, you’ll be invoiced yearly. These invoices will usually be calculated based on your earnings from the year before.
If you sign up for CPX, you’ll be invoiced against your agreed level of cover shortly after your policy is approved. After that, you’ll be invoiced for CPX every April when your policy renews.
If your business details are wrong
ACC gets your income details from Inland Revenue. If they are wrong on your invoice, get in touch with Inland Revenue to get this sorted. They’ll then send any updates to ACC.
Let ACC know if any other details on your invoice are wrong, as this could affect the levies you're paying. You can update your contact or business details online, and tell ACC if your business activity has changed or your business is no longer operating.
How to pay your levy invoice
You can pay:
- online via internet banking
- online via credit card (a service fee applies)
- by direct debit, as a one-off payment or in instalments.
Common mistakes
These are some common mistakes to be aware of.
- Not budgeting for your invoice. use ACC's levy calculators to get an estimate - it's worth regularly setting money aside in a savings account to help cover the cost.
- Not paying your invoice by the due date - you may face a penalty for late payment
- Not realising you’ll get an ACC invoice because you’re a contractor who receives schedular payments. Schedular payments have tax deducted by the payer, but not ACC levies – avoid invoice surprises by checking with your employer whether you are an employee or contractor.
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