Where do I get my free $500?

I’ve heard people talking about needing to put $1000 into KiwiSaver now to get money from the Government. What’s the deal with this? And do I have to put the whole amount in?

What you might have heard mentioned is the KiwiSaver member tax credit.

If you contribute at $1043 of your own money to your KiwiSaver account in the 12 months between July 1 and June 30, you can receive the maximum contribution of $521.43 from the Government.

This is a return of 50% so is worth having.

You can make your contribution either as a deduction from your salary that is transferred across automatically when you are paid, or by voluntary contributions.

You don’t have to contribute the full $1043 to qualify for a credit – you will get 50c for each $1 you contribute up to that amount. If it’s too hard to get to the $1043 this year – maybe you’re off work for a while – you could think about setting up an automatic payment of $20 a week to your KiwiSaver account to make sure you get it next time.

Now is a good time to check your KiwiSaver settings generally – are you contributing enough to meet your goals? Are you in the right sort of fund for your circumstances?

Whatever happened to those websites that offered tax refunds? How do I check Inland Revenue doesn’t owe me money?

Things have changed a bit in this regard in recent years. It used to be that, unless you filed a tax return, you wouldn’t know that Inland Revenue owed you any money. And since it wasn’t compulsory for people on PAYE, a lot of people didn’t bother.

That led to a group of companies offering to check whether people were owed money – and only filing a return for them if they were. They took a percentage fee in return.

But the process has been automated since 2019. People are sent an automatically calculated income tax assessment each year that shows whether you are due a refund or have tax to pay.

You have a chance to correct any incorrect information, and if Inland Revenue has your bank details, any refund will be transferred automatically.