KiwiSaver Moving to Australia 2026: Transfer or Leave It Invested in NZ?

Moving across the Tasman? You can transfer your KiwiSaver to an Australian super fund, but you cannot cash it out. Here is how to decide transfer vs leave it, plus the tax and access traps.

In the June 2025 year, Stats NZ recorded a net loss of around 28,200 New Zealand citizens to Australia, and 61% of all departing Kiwis were heading there ¹⁵. If you are one of them, your KiwiSaver does not just stay frozen on the day your flight leaves. You have a decision to make, and one of the options people most expect, cashing it out, is the one option you do not have.

This guide explains exactly what you can and cannot do with your KiwiSaver when you move to Australia, how a trans-Tasman transfer actually works, and how to weigh transferring against leaving it invested in New Zealand.

TL;DR: can I take my KiwiSaver to Australia?

TL;DR: Moving to Australia permanently, you cannot withdraw your KiwiSaver as cash. You can transfer the whole balance to an APRA-regulated Australian super fund under trans-Tasman portability, or leave it invested in NZ until age 65. The transfer is tax-free, and your government contributions come with you ¹²³.

Can I withdraw my KiwiSaver if I move to Australia?

No. KiwiSaver moving to Australia is transfer-only, and this is a common misconception.

If you emigrate permanently to any country other than Australia, you can apply to withdraw your KiwiSaver in cash, but only one year after you leave, and the amount is reduced because any government contributions (member tax credits) must be repaid to the Crown ⁴.

Australia is the exception. Because of the trans-Tasman portability arrangement, you cannot take the cash. Instead you get a transfer-only pathway: move the balance into an Australian complying super fund, or leave it sitting in your KiwiSaver scheme ¹. There is no "I'm moving to Sydney, please pay it out" option. The trade-off is that your government contributions are protected rather than clawed back, which we will come to.

Trans-Tasman portability: how a transfer to Australian super works

Trans-Tasman portability lets you consolidate your retirement savings on one side of the Tasman. The mechanics matter, because the rules are stricter than most people assume:

• Whole balance only. You cannot do a partial transfer. It is all of your KiwiSaver or none of it ².
• APRA-regulated funds only. The receiving fund must be an Australian complying superannuation scheme regulated by APRA. You cannot transfer into a self-managed super fund (SMSF) ².
• The transfer itself is not taxed. No NZ exit tax, no Australian entry tax on the way in ⁶.
• You must have permanently emigrated. Portability is for people who have genuinely moved, not for Kiwis on a working holiday planning to return.

The practical process is: open or confirm an APRA-regulated Australian super account that accepts trans-Tasman transfers, then instruct your NZ KiwiSaver provider to transfer the balance. Not every Australian fund accepts KiwiSaver money, so confirm before you start.

If you want this handled properly rather than guessed at, our Australian super transfer service walks you through it.

Figure: KiwiSaver options when you move to Australia

The headline both columns share: you cannot withdraw KiwiSaver as cash just for moving to Australia. The only genuine choice is transfer versus leave invested.

Source: Trans-Tasman portability rules; IRD; ATO, 2026 ¹²⁵.

Transfer vs leave it invested in New Zealand: how to decide

There is no universally right answer. It comes down to a handful of factors:

Reasons to transfer to Australian super

• You are confident the move is permanent and want everything in one place.
• You are tired of currency exposure and managing money in two jurisdictions.
• Your Australian fund has low fees. Australian MySuper balanced/growth defaults (think AustralianSuper Balanced, Hostplus, ART Indexed Balanced, Aware Super) often run around 0.6%-0.9% all-in, frequently cheaper than NZ growth funds ¹⁶.
• You want your retirement savings governed by the country you will retire in.

Reasons to leave it invested in NZ

• You are not certain the move is permanent (more on that below).
• You like your current NZ fund and its track record. Milford's Active Growth fund, for example, charges a 1.05% management fee plus a 0.15% performance fee and reports market-leading 10-year results per Morningstar ¹⁶.
• You want to keep ultra-low-cost passive options that may not exist in your Australian fund, such as Simplicity Growth at 0.24-0.29%, Kernel High Growth at 0.25%, or InvestNow's Foundation Series US 500 at 0.03% (note its 0.50% buy/sell spread) ¹⁶.
• You would rather not commit irreversibly while you settle in.

Fees are usually the deciding swing factor, so it is worth comparing like for like. The market spread is wide. Across all 404 open KiwiSaver funds, median fees run Conservative 0.84%, Balanced 0.95%, Growth 1.05%, Aggressive 0.75%, with total charges ranging from 0.03% to over 3% ¹³. Sector-wide, KiwiSaver fees were $868.5 million in the FMA's 2025 report, sitting steady at 0.7% of funds under management, while funds under management themselves grew 10% to around $123 billion ¹².

A quick NZ growth-fund fee snapshot (2026)

Provider fee disclosures and MoneyHub, 2026 ¹⁶.

The point of the table is not that cheapest wins. It is that the gap between a 0.25% fund and a 1.29% fund, compounded over a 30-year working life, is enormous, and it should be part of any transfer decision. Compare after-fee, after-tax outcomes (at a 28% PIR) using our KiwiSaver fee and growth calculator, or cross-check against Sorted's Smart Investor{:rel="nofollow noopener"} before you do anything.

If you would rather we ran the numbers, that is what a KiwiSaver review is for.

What happens to your government contributions on transfer?

This is the good news, and it is the bit that genuinely surprises people.

When you transfer to Australia, your accumulated government contributions (member tax credits) come with you, and the historic $1,000 kick-start can transfer too. The Crown does not recoup them ³. That is a meaningful contrast with cashing out on emigration to anywhere else, where those government contributions are repaid to the Crown and reduce what you get ⁴.

Worth knowing for context: the government contribution itself shrank from 1 July 2025. It is now 25 cents for every $1 you contribute, capped at $260.72 a year (down from $521.43), and you need to put in at least $1,042.86 of your own money between 1 July and 30 June to get the full amount ⁷. From the same date, if you earn over $180,000 of taxable income you no longer qualify ⁸. Only your personal contributions count toward that $1,042.86 threshold, employer contributions and money moved from Australian schemes do not ⁹.

Worked example: government contributions on transfer vs cash-out

Scenario: Aroha has $48,000 in KiwiSaver, including roughly $5,000 of accumulated government contributions over the years. (The $5,000 figure is illustrative and assumed for the purpose of this example; your own accumulated government contributions will differ.)

Moving to Australia, Aroha keeps the lot. The portability scheme is, on this measure, more generous than the cash-out route applied elsewhere.

Tax and access differences between KiwiSaver and Aussie super

Two big differences trip people up.

1. The NZ-sourced money stays locked until 65. Once transferred, your KiwiSaver-origin savings are locked in until you reach the NZ retirement age (currently 65). Even under Australian rules, that NZ-sourced component cannot be accessed before 65 ⁵. Australians can sometimes access super earlier in limited cases; your transferred KiwiSaver portion cannot.

2. It counts toward Australia's non-concessional cap. The transfer is tax-free coming in, but NZ-sourced savings are treated as non-concessional (personal) contributions in Australia, so they count toward Australia's non-concessional contributions cap. Exceeding that cap can trigger extra Australian tax ⁶. If you have a large balance, timing matters, do not blunder over the cap in a single year.

There is also a tax point for people who leave money in NZ. Your KiwiSaver is taxed via the PIE regime at your Prescribed Investor Rate (PIR). The thresholds (from 1 April 2025) are 10.5%, 17.5% or 28% depending on income, but a non-resident's PIR is generally 28% ¹¹. So once you are an Australian tax resident, a fund left behind in NZ is typically taxed at the top 28% PIR. That is not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it does eat into the case for leaving a balanced or growth balance sitting in NZ indefinitely.

For the bigger retirement picture across both countries, see our retirement planning service.

What if you might come back to New Zealand?

This is the question that should slow you down. A transfer to Australian super is effectively irreversible in practice for most people, and you would have to meet the rules to bring money back the other way.

Stats NZ's own data shows the tide can turn. For the December 2025 calendar year, the net migration figure was a gain of 14,200 across all migrants, even as New Zealand still recorded a net loss of New Zealand citizens overall ¹⁴. More recent Stats NZ data shows that net citizen loss easing further into 2026 ¹⁵. Plenty of Kiwis go to Australia and come home.

Our blunt advice: if there is a realistic chance you will return within a few years, leave it invested in NZ while you settle. You can always transfer later once the move is clearly permanent. You cannot easily un-transfer. The one caveat is the 28% non-resident PIR, factor that in, but the flexibility usually outweighs it for the genuinely undecided.

If you are sure, our KiwiSaver advice team can get the transfer moving.

Common mistakes Kiwis make moving across the Tasman

• Assuming they can cash it out. They cannot. Australia is transfer-only ¹.
• Trying to transfer into an SMSF. Not allowed, APRA-regulated complying funds only ².
• Expecting a partial transfer. It is the whole balance or nothing ².
• Ignoring the non-concessional cap. A big transfer in one year can breach Australia's cap and trigger tax ⁶.
• Leaving a forgotten KiwiSaver in NZ at 28% PIR. Not reviewing it for years, paying top-rate PIE tax, and never comparing fees ¹¹.
• Transferring on day one of a move they are not sure about. The decision is hard to reverse.
• Forgetting the contribution settings entirely. Note too that NZ default contribution rates rise to 3.5% each from 1 April 2026 and 4% each from 1 April 2028 ¹⁰, relevant if you keep contributing in NZ before you go.

A common situation is leaving an old KiwiSaver untouched after moving, paying the 28% non-resident PIR on a fund that has not been reviewed in years. A short review can surface a better option.

How a Smiths adviser models the transfer decision

When you bring this to us, we do not start with a recommendation. We start with your facts: balance, current fund and fees, your likely permanence, your Australian fund's MySuper option and its all-in cost, and your timeframe to 65.

Then we model both paths side by side, after-fee and after-tax: what your NZ balance looks like left invested at a 28% PIR versus transferred into your Australian fund at its fee level, and what the non-concessional cap means for your specific balance. We flag the irreversibility, the access-at-65 lock, and whether splitting the timing of a large transfer makes sense. You can run a first pass yourself with our KiwiSaver fee and growth calculator, and you leave a session with a documented comparison.

Book a free KiwiSaver review with a Smiths adviser. Book a review

Frequently asked questions

Can I cash out my KiwiSaver if I move to Australia? No. Permanent migration to Australia is transfer-only. You can move the whole balance to an APRA-regulated Australian super fund, or leave it invested in NZ, but you cannot take it as cash ¹.

Can I transfer only part of my KiwiSaver to Australia? No. Trans-Tasman transfers must be the entire balance, and they can only go to an Australian complying superannuation scheme regulated by APRA, not a self-managed super fund (SMSF). Partial transfers and SMSF transfers are both excluded ².

Will I lose my government contributions if I transfer to Australia? No. Your accumulated member tax credits and the historic $1,000 kick-start transfer with you and are not recouped by the Crown, unlike a cash withdrawal when emigrating elsewhere ³⁴.

Is a trans-Tasman transfer taxed? The transfer itself is tax-free, no NZ exit tax and no Australian entry tax. But the NZ-sourced amount counts as a non-concessional contribution in Australia and toward that cap, so a large transfer can trigger extra Australian tax if you exceed it ⁶.

When can I access KiwiSaver money I transferred to Australia? The NZ-sourced component stays locked until you reach the NZ retirement age, currently 65, even under Australian access rules ⁵.

Should I leave my KiwiSaver in NZ if I'm not sure I'll stay in Australia? Often, yes. A transfer is effectively irreversible, so if a return is realistic it usually makes sense to leave it invested and transfer later, weighing the 28% non-resident PIR against the flexibility ¹¹.

General information, not personalised financial advice. Seek advice tailored to your situation before acting. Craig Smith Business Services Ltd (FSP712931), trading as Smiths Financial, holds a Class 2 licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority and is a member of the Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS). Written by Henry Smith, Financial Adviser; reviewed by Craig Smith, Principal Adviser. Last reviewed 16 June 2026.