The KiwiSaver set-aside

As a contractor you don't get KiwiSaver contributions from an employer. If you want to keep building your KiwiSaver, you move the money across yourself, and that is the easiest thing to skip when the same bank balance is covering your GST, your income tax, and your living costs.

The KiwiSaver set-aside is how Coffer helps with that. You choose a percentage of your income, and Coffer ringfences that share out of “Available to spend” the moment an invoice is paid, the same way it ringfences your GST and income tax. It isn't tax, and Coffer never sends it anywhere. It's your own money set aside for later, and you make the actual contribution to your KiwiSaver account whenever it suits you.

Setting your percentage

Open the KiwiSaver section in Settings and enter the percentage of your income you want to set aside. You can pick any percentage; you are not limited to the standard employee rates. Leave it blank and nothing is set aside.

What the percentage is based on

The set-aside is worked out on your gross income, which is the invoice amount minus GST. A 4% rate on a $10,000 invoice (plus $1,500 GST) sets aside 4% of $10,000, so $400. That matches the way KiwiSaver contributions are usually described, a percentage of gross pay, and it is the same base Coffer uses for your income-tax ringfence.

How it shows on your dashboard

Only paid invoices count. When you mark an invoice paid, Coffer locks in that invoice's KiwiSaver set-aside and subtracts it from “Available to spend”, shown as its own segment in the dashboard breakdown alongside your GST and income-tax ringfences and any pots. An unpaid invoice doesn't set anything aside until it's paid.

Changing your rate during the year

You can change your percentage whenever you like. The new rate only applies to invoices paid from that point on. Invoices you've already been paid for keep the set-aside they were locked in at, so moving from 3% to 5% in October doesn't reach back and change what you set aside earlier in the year; it just applies to what you're paid next.

The government contribution

A KiwiSaver year runs from 1 July to 30 June. Across that year the government adds 25 cents for every dollar you contribute, up to a maximum of $260.72, which you reach once you've contributed $1,042.86 of your own money (for incomes under $180,000).

On your dashboard Coffer shows how much you've set aside so far this KiwiSaver year and tells you when you've reached the $1,042.86 mark, or how much more would get you there.

For the wider picture of KiwiSaver when you're self-employed, see the guide on KiwiSaver for the self-employed.