KiwiSaver when you're self-employed

Leaving employment quietly switches off most of your KiwiSaver arrangement: the payroll deductions stop, the employer contribution stops, and nothing restarts by itself. Your membership and balance carry on untouched. What disappears is the automation. This guide covers what changes, the one government contribution that still applies, and the small setup that keeps your retirement savings moving while you contract.

What stops when you leave employment

• Your own deductions. Contributions came out of pay automatically; self-employed income has no payroll, so nothing is deducted from your invoices.
• The employer contribution. Employers must contribute at least 3.5% of pay for contributing employees (rising to 4% from April 2028). Clients owe a contractor nothing here, which is one of the costs your rate has to carry: the rate guide prices it in.

Contributing at all becomes voluntary. Plenty of contractors pause entirely, some by decision and many just because nothing prompts them to keep going. If you do pause, make it a deliberate choice rather than something that happens by default.

The government contribution still applies

The piece worth acting on is the government match: the government still matches member contributions at 25 cents per dollar, up to $260.72 a year. To collect the full amount you need to contribute at least $1,042.86 of your own money between 1 July and 30 June (the KiwiSaver year), and your taxable income must be $180,000 or less. Both the match rate and the income cap are the post-Budget-2025 rules, so you may still find the older, more generous figures ($521, no income cap) quoted in places that haven't been updated.

As a return, that's $1,042.86 in and $260.72 on top, every year. It's a guaranteed match, and it takes one automatic payment to collect. It won't replace the 3.5% an employer used to add, so don't treat it as the whole retirement plan.

How to contribute without payroll

Self-employed members contribute directly, either through your KiwiSaver provider (most support one-off and recurring payments) or via Inland Revenue. The setup that works best is the one that takes the decision out of your hands: an automatic payment of $21 a week, or roughly $87 a month, clears the $1,042.86 line by June without a last-minute rush. Check your total before 30 June each year, since providers show the running KiwiSaver-year figure.

Where it fits in contractor money

KiwiSaver sits behind the non-negotiables. GST, income tax, and ACC are debts, and the set-aside system covers those first. The government match is the next dollar well spent after them. Beyond the $1,042.86, the question becomes ordinary financial planning: KiwiSaver locks money away for retirement (or a first home), and contractors with uneven income often value accessible savings more than extra locked contributions. That trade-off is yours to make, ideally with advice.

How Coffer helps

To work out what a KiwiSaver contribution really costs you, you need to know what's actually yours. Coffer's dashboard shows that: what you can spend after GST, income tax, and ACC are ringfenced. The KiwiSaver set-aside builds on it. Pick a percentage of your income, and Coffer ringfences it out of Available the moment each invoice is paid. It also shows when you've set aside enough to unlock the full government contribution. You still make the contribution to your provider yourself, before the 30 June deadline above.