How to Read Your ACC Levy Invoice as a Self-Employed Kiwi (NZ)

Got an ACC invoice and not sure what half of it means? Here is a line-by-line walkthrough of the Work, Earners' and Working Safer levies, the provisional-versus-actual wash-up, and how to check it is right.

If you work for yourself in New Zealand, an ACC levy invoice turns up once a year, and for a lot of people it is one of the more confusing pieces of post they get. There are several different levies on it, the figures rarely match what you guessed, and there is often a mysterious adjustment from a previous year sitting in the total. None of it is random. Once you know what each line is for, the invoice is fairly readable.

This guide walks through a self-employed ACC invoice line by line: what the three main levies are, how each is worked out, why the total moves around, and how to check it is right before you pay.

TL;DR: A self-employed ACC invoice is mostly three levies — the Work levy (set by your occupation's risk code), the Earners' levy (a flat $1.60 per $100 of liable income, including GST, for 2024/25), and the small flat Working Safer levy ($0.08 per $100).¹⁴ Most invoices also carry a provisional charge for the year ahead plus a wash-up for the year just gone.

Why did I get an ACC levy invoice and what is it for?

When you are self-employed, ACC cover is not optional, and the levy is how you pay for it. In exchange, ACC covers the cost of treating work and non-work injuries and pays weekly compensation to replace part of your income if an injury stops you working. Employees have their share deducted through PAYE; the self-employed get billed directly, which is why the invoice lands on your desk rather than disappearing quietly off a payslip.

A key thing to hold onto from the start: ACC covers injury, not illness. The levy buys you injury cover. If a sickness, rather than an accident, is what stops you working, ACC generally pays nothing, which is a gap many self-employed people choose to fill with private income protection. More on that at the end.

ACC works your levy out from the liable income you filed with Inland Revenue, applied to a set of rates that change each April. Because the figures move and the levies stack, the total is rarely a round number, and rarely the number you expected.

What are the levies on the invoice (Work, Earners', Working Safer)?

Most of a self-employed invoice is three separate levies, each doing a different job. They are listed as separate lines, and GST is added on top.

• The Work levy funds cover for work-related injuries. Its rate depends on how risky ACC considers your occupation to be, so this is the line that varies most from one person to the next.⁵⁶
• The Earners' levy funds cover for injuries that happen away from work — at home, playing sport, on the weekend. Everyone who earns pays it at the same flat rate.¹
• The Working Safer levy funds WorkSafe New Zealand, the workplace health and safety regulator. It is a small flat amount everyone pays, regardless of occupation.⁴

The diagram below shows where each sits on a typical invoice.

Anatomy of a self-employed ACC invoice

``` ACC LEVY INVOICE — self-employed

Work levy Classification Unit (CU) rate × income ← varies by occupation Earners' levy $1.60 per $100 of liable income (incl GST) ← flat, everyone Working Safer levy $0.08 per $100 of liable income ← flat, funds WorkSafe

Provisional levies estimate for the YEAR AHEAD ← billed in advance Wash-up adjustment actual vs estimate for the PRIOR YEAR ← top-up or credit

GST added to the levy lines TOTAL DUE

```

Illustration of how a self-employed ACC invoice is structured. Line names and layout vary; check your own invoice and ACC's levy guidebook. The Earners' levy rate shown is the 2024/25 GST-inclusive rate.¹⁴ Source: ACC levy guidebook.

How is each levy calculated for the self-employed?

Each levy is a rate applied to your liable income — broadly, the income you earn from active work, within ACC's minimum and maximum. For the 2024/25 levy year, self-employed levies are charged on liable income between a minimum of $44,250 and a maximum of $142,283.³ Those floors and ceilings matter, and they explain two common surprises.

The first surprise: if your actual earnings are below the minimum, you are still levied as if you earned $44,250. That is why some low-income self-employed people get a larger bill than they expected — there is a floor under it.³

The second: the Earners' levy stops at the cap. For 2024/25 the maximum earnings it is charged on is $142,283, which makes the maximum Earners' levy $2,276.52 including GST.² Earn above the cap and the Earners' portion does not keep climbing.

Here is how the three levies are set for 2024/25.

Figures are 2024/25 levy year (1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025) and were correct as at 2 February 2025. The $0.63 Work levy is the scheme average; your own rate depends on your CU. The Earners' rate is $1.39 per $100 excluding GST, which becomes $1.60 with GST added.⁹ ACC levy rates change each April — check current figures before relying on them.

Why the Work levy is the line that varies most

The Earners' and Working Safer levies are flat, so two self-employed people on the same income pay the same on those two lines. The Work levy is different, because it is set by your Classification Unit (CU) — a code for what your business actually does. Each CU carries its own rate, and the riskier ACC judges the occupation, the higher the rate.⁶ A desk-based consultant and a roofer on identical incomes can pay very different Work levies.

You can look up your CU using ACC's CU search tool, and the full table of rates sits in ACC's Levy Guidebook.⁶ It is worth confirming your code is right, because an out-of-date or wrong CU is one of the more common reasons an invoice is too high. Our companion guide on CoverPlus Extra and Classification Units goes deeper on how the CU drives this line.

What's the difference between provisional and actual (wash-up) levies?

This is the part that confuses the most people, so it is worth slowing down on.

ACC cannot see your self-employed income until you file your tax return, which happens after the year it relates to. So ACC bills you in two directions at once:

• Provisional levies — an estimate for the year ahead, based on your previous income (or your expected income if you are new). You pay this in advance, before ACC knows your actual earnings.⁷
• The wash-up — once your tax return is filed, ACC compares your actual earnings against the estimate it billed. If you earned more than estimated, you get a top-up invoice. If you earned less, you get a credit or refund.⁷

So a single invoice often contains a charge looking forward (provisional) and an adjustment looking back (the wash-up). That is normal. It is also why the total can swing year to year even when your income is fairly steady.

A practical warning: if you have a strong year after a quiet one, the wash-up can land as a bigger-than-expected bill the following year, on top of a higher provisional charge. Setting a little aside for it beats being caught out.

Why did my levy go up or down this year?

If the total moved and you want to know why, it usually comes down to one of a handful of things:

• Your income changed. Higher filed income means a higher levy across all three lines (up to the cap); lower income means less, down to the minimum floor of $44,250.³
• A wash-up landed. A top-up from a better-than-estimated prior year, or a credit from a quieter one, can move the total either way independent of this year's earnings.⁷
• The rates changed. ACC levy rates are reset each April, so even with identical income your levy can shift when the new year's rates apply.¹⁹
• Your CU changed. If your Classification Unit was updated, the Work levy line moves with it.⁶
• You hit the floor or the cap. Dropping below $44,250 means you are still levied on $44,250; rising above $142,283 means the Earners' portion stops growing.²³

If the total looks wrong rather than just different, that is worth checking properly — see below.

How does CoverPlus Extra change what you see on the invoice?

By default you are on standard CoverPlus, where your levy is calculated on the liable income you filed with Inland Revenue. CoverPlus Extra (CPX) is optional cover where you agree a fixed level of cover with ACC instead.⁸

That changes the invoice in two ways. Your Work and Earners' levy lines are worked out on the agreed cover amount you set with ACC, rather than your tax-return income. And because the cover is a fixed agreed figure, there is no income wash-up on the CPX portion — you are not squaring an estimate against your actual earnings, so the provisional-versus-actual dance largely falls away for that cover.⁸

For people with lumpy or seasonal income, that predictability is the appeal: a steadier, known levy and no surprise wash-up. The trade-off is that you are paying on the agreed figure whether or not your income matches it in a given year. Our guide on CoverPlus versus CoverPlus Extra works through which tends to suit whom.

How do you check the invoice is right and fix errors?

Before you pay, a few quick checks catch most problems:

1. Confirm the income figure. Does the liable income ACC has used match what you actually filed? If your income dropped below $44,250, expect to still be levied on the minimum — that is correct, not an error.³

2. Check your Classification Unit. Is the CU code right for what you actually do? A wrong or out-of-date CU is a common cause of an over-high Work levy. Look it up against ACC's CU search and the Levy Guidebook.⁶

3. Identify the provisional and wash-up lines. Make sure you understand which part is the estimate for the year ahead and which is the adjustment for the prior year, so you are not mistaking a one-off wash-up for a permanent increase.⁷

4. Check the cover type. If you thought you were on CoverPlus Extra but the invoice is calculating on your filed income, or vice versa, query it.⁸

5. Confirm the cap. If you are a higher earner, the Earners' levy should stop at $142,283 of income / $2,276.52 for 2024/25.²

If something looks off, contact ACC to correct it — most issues are a CU code or an income figure, both of which ACC can fix. If you would rather have a second pair of eyes, an adviser can read the invoice with you and check it against the cover you actually hold.

What to do if you can't pay the levy on time

If the invoice is correct but the timing is hard, you do not have to pay it in one lump sum. ACC offers payment plans / instalment arrangements, which you can set up by phone or through MyACC for Business, so the balance is spread over time rather than due all at once.¹⁰ It is better to arrange this before the due date than to let the invoice fall overdue. If a wash-up has produced a bill you genuinely dispute, sort the dispute out separately rather than simply not paying.

How this fits the rest of your self-employed cover

Getting the invoice right is housekeeping; the bigger question is whether your cover actually fits your situation. Two things are worth keeping in view. First, ACC only ever covers injury — if illness is what stops you working, ACC generally pays nothing, and that gap is usually filled with private income protection that can be structured to pay for sickness as well as accident. As an independent adviser, Smiths can compare income protection across the major New Zealand insurers — Partners Life, AIA, Asteron, Fidelity, Chubb and Cigna among them — and line the wait and benefit periods up with your ACC cover so you are not paying twice for the same accident risk.

Second, ACC, insurance and KiwiSaver tend to be looked at in isolation when they really work as one picture. Our self-employed financial checklist pulls those pieces together in one place.

Frequently asked questions

Why does my ACC invoice have so many different charges on it? Most self-employed invoices carry three levies — the Work levy (set by your occupation's Classification Unit), the flat Earners' levy ($1.60 per $100 including GST for 2024/25), and the flat Working Safer levy ($0.08 per $100) — plus, usually, a provisional charge for the year ahead and a wash-up adjustment for the year just gone.¹⁴⁷ GST is added on top of the levy lines.

What is the Earners' levy and how much is it? The Earners' levy funds cover for injuries that happen away from work. For the 2024/25 levy year it is a flat $1.60 per $100 of liable income (1.60%), including GST, and it is capped — the maximum earnings it applies to is $142,283, giving a maximum Earners' levy of $2,276.52.¹² The self-employed pay it on the invoice alongside the Work and Working Safer levies.

Why is my ACC levy so high when I earned very little? ACC applies a minimum. For 2024/25, self-employed levies are charged on liable income of at least $44,250, even if you actually earned less, so a low-income year can still produce a larger-than-expected bill.³ The floor is set by ACC, not chosen by you.

What is a provisional levy and a wash-up? Because ACC cannot see your income until you file your tax return, it bills a provisional (estimated) levy for the year ahead, then squares it up once your return is filed — billing a top-up if you earned more than estimated, or crediting you if you earned less. That comparison is the wash-up.⁷

Why does my Work levy differ from another self-employed person on the same income? The Work levy is set by your Classification Unit (CU), the code for your business activity, and each CU has its own rate based on how risky the occupation is.⁶ Two people on identical incomes but in different occupations can pay very different Work levies. The Earners' and Working Safer levies, by contrast, are flat for everyone.

What can I do if I can't pay my ACC invoice by the due date? You can set up a payment plan or instalment arrangement with ACC — for example by phone or through MyACC for Business — so the balance is spread over time rather than paid in one lump sum.¹⁰ It is best arranged before the invoice falls overdue.

This article is general information only and is not personalised financial advice. It does not take into account your particular financial situation, goals or needs. Before acting, consider whether it's right for you and seek advice tailored to your circumstances. Craig Smith Business Services Ltd (FSP712931), trading as Smiths Financial, holds a Class 2 licence issued by the Financial Markets Authority to provide financial advice, and is a member of the Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS). Whether a claim is paid depends on the terms, conditions, exclusions, stand-down periods and underwriting of the specific policy, and on your disclosure. ACC levy figures, thresholds and rates are set by Government and can change; figures are correct as at 2 February 2025 — check current figures at acc.co.nz and ird.govt.nz. Written by Henry Smith, Financial Adviser; reviewed by Craig Smith, Principal Adviser. Last reviewed 2 February 2025.