Secondary Tax in New Zealand
Secondary tax is a flat rate on every dollar your second job pays: 12.25%, 19.25%, 31.75%, 34.75% or 40.75%, including the 1.75% ACC earners' levy. You pick the code from your total income across every source, not from what the second job pays.
How much is secondary tax in New Zealand?
Secondary tax is one of five flat rates, applied from the first dollar the job pays, because your employer cannot see what your other job pays you. The rate your employer deducts is two figures added together, and almost every site publishes one of them while labelling it the other. The table below separates them.
| Code | Total income from all sources | Income tax | ACC levy | Deducted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SB | Total income up to $15,600 | 10.5% | 1.75% | 12.25% |
| S | $15,601 – $53,500 | 17.5% | 1.75% | 19.25% |
| SH | $53,501 – $78,100 | 30% | 1.75% | 31.75% |
| ST | $78,101 – $180,000 | 33% | 1.75% | 34.75% |
| SA | $180,001 and over | 39% | 1.75% | 40.75% |
The last column is what leaves your pay. The middle two are what it is made of. If you have ever compared a payslip against a rate table and found it 1.75% out, that is the reason. The ACC earners' levy is charged on secondary income exactly as it is on your main job.
SH is the most common secondary code, because it covers total incomes from $53,501 to $78,100. Add a student loan and the same job loses 43.75%.
Is secondary tax higher than tax on one job?
No, and the right code produces almost exactly the tax that the same total attracts in a single job, because the rate starts at your marginal rate instead of climbing to it. Your main job has already used the 10.5% band on your first $15,600 and the 17.5% band after that. There are no cheap bands left for the second job to use, so it is charged at the rate your income has already reached.
Take $62,000 from one job and $9,000 from another. The total is $71,000, so the second job is coded SH. Income tax across the two jobs comes to $13,520.50. The same $71,000 earned from a single employer attracts $13,520.50. The ACC earners' levy of $1,242.50 is the same either way, because it is charged on your earnings rather than on your arrangement of jobs.
What does cost money is the wrong code, and that arithmetic is set out in full further down this page.
On a second job, student loan has no threshold at all
This is the most miscalculated number on a New Zealand payslip. The $24,128 a year repayment threshold ($464.00 a week) belongs to your main job only. Attach an SL suffix to a secondary code and payroll deducts 12% of every dollar, starting at the first one.
A $400.00 weekly shift on your main job attracts $0.00 of student loan. The same $400.00 from a second employer attracts $48.00. That is why an SH SL second job loses 43.75% of its gross before KiwiSaver is even considered. The SL suffix in full.
What does your second job actually pay?
- Gross
- $70,000.00
- PAYE tax
- − $21,000.00
- ACC levy
- − $1,225.00
- KiwiSaver
- − $2,450.00
- Take-home
- $45,325.00
You keep 64.8% of your gross pay.
Enter what the second job pays. The rate shown already contains the 1.75% ACC earners' levy, and KiwiSaver is at the 3.5% default. Change the code by reading your total income off the table above.
What does a second job keep at each income level?
The same second job changes code whenever your main job moves, because the band is read off the two added together. Every row below pays the identical second job a different amount for that reason alone.
| Main job | Second job | Total income | Code | Deducted | Second job keeps |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $14,000 | $9,000 | $23,000 | S | 19.25% | $7,268 |
| $40,000 | $8,000 | $48,000 | S | 19.25% | $6,460 |
| $50,000 | $5,000 | $55,000 | SH | 31.75% | $3,413 |
| $62,000 | $9,000 | $71,000 | SH | 31.75% | $6,143 |
| $58,000 | $12,000 | $70,000 | SH | 31.75% | $8,190 |
| $80,000 | $20,000 | $100,000 | ST | 34.75% | $13,050 |
| $150,000 | $40,000 | $190,000 | SA | 40.75% | $23,700 |
The final column is PAYE only. A student loan takes a further 12% of the gross on top, and KiwiSaver at the 3.5% default takes more again.
What does the SL suffix add to each secondary code?
The SL suffix adds 12% of every dollar to whichever secondary code you are on, and it does not scale with how little the job pays. The final column is what a single $400.00 weekly shift leaves you once the suffix is on, before KiwiSaver.
| Code | Total income from all sources | Deducted | Deducted with SL | $400.00 a week keeps |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SB | Total income up to $15,600 | 12.25% | 24.25% | $303.00 |
| S | $15,601 – $53,500 | 19.25% | 31.25% | $275.00 |
| SH | $53,501 – $78,100 | 31.75% | 43.75% | $225.00 |
| ST | $78,101 – $180,000 | 34.75% | 46.75% | $213.00 |
| SA | $180,001 and over | 40.75% | 52.75% | $189.00 |
What does $400.00 a week from a second job on SH leave you?
- 1.Gross pay from this job for the week$20,800 a year from this job alone$400.00
- 2.PAYE at 31.75%30% income tax with the ACC earners' levy already inside it− $127.00
- 3.KiwiSaver at 3.5%− $14.00
- Into your account$259.00
What does the same $400.00 a week leave you on SH SL?
- 1.Gross pay from this job for the week$20,800 a year from this job alone$400.00
- 2.PAYE at 31.75%30% income tax with the ACC earners' levy already inside it− $127.00
- 3.Student loan at 12%Every dollar. The repayment threshold belongs to your main job− $48.00
- 4.KiwiSaver at 3.5%− $14.00
- Into your account$211.00
The only difference between the two is the student loan line, and it is $48.00 a week because every dollar counts. Across a year that second job pays $20,800 and hands over $9,100 of it. Both examples assume the 3.5% KiwiSaver rate.
What is the SB tax code, and when does it apply?
Tax code SB deducts a flat 12.25% of every dollar a second job pays, and it applies only while your total income from every source is $15,600 a year or less. That rate is 10.5% income tax plus the 1.75% ACC earners' levy. With a student loan the code is SB SL and the deduction becomes 24.25%, which is close to double, because the loan rate does not fall with income.
SB is the narrowest band on the scale and the code most often chosen in error. A job paying $4,000 does not get SB because $4,000 is under $15,600. It gets SB only if your total is under $15,600, which is roughly $300 a week across everything you earn. Earn $20,000 elsewhere and the same job is coded S.
In practice SB fits a narrow group: someone working two small part-time jobs that add to less than $15,600 a year, or someone who started work partway through the tax year. A $180.00 weekly shift on SB gives up $22.05 of PAYE. The same shift on SB SL gives up $43.65.
What is the S tax code, and when does it apply?
Tax code S deducts a flat 19.25% of every dollar a second job pays, and it applies while your total income from every source is $15,601 to $53,500. That rate is 17.5% income tax plus the 1.75% ACC earners' levy, which is why it matches no figure in the tax bracket table. With a student loan the code is S SL and the deduction becomes 31.25%.
The band comes from the total. A $7,000 weekend job attached to a $30,000 salary is coded on the $37,000 total. A job paying $6,000 does not get S because $6,000 sits in that range. It gets S because your total does. Earn $50,000 elsewhere and the same job is coded SH.
S refunds more often than the codes above it, for a structural reason. It charges 17.5% of income tax on every dollar, but a total near the bottom of the band still has room left in the 10.5% bracket. A main job of $14,000 plus a second job of $6,000 totals $20,000, so $2,520.00 of income tax is withheld against $2,408.00 genuinely due. Inland Revenue refunds about $112.00.
What is the SH tax code in New Zealand?
Tax code SH deducts a flat 31.75% of every dollar a second job pays, and it applies while your total income from every source is $53,501 to $78,100. That rate is 30% income tax plus the 1.75% ACC earners' levy. With a student loan the code is SH SL and the deduction becomes 43.75%, at which point a $200 shift returns $112.50 before KiwiSaver.
SH is where most second jobs end up, because its band covers the incomes most New Zealand main jobs sit in. A Saturday job paying $9,000 takes SH because the person doing it already earns $60,000 elsewhere, not because $9,000 is a large amount. A pay rise on your main job can change the correct code on your second job without that job changing at all.
SH lands closer than any other secondary code, because its 30% income tax component is the same rate the bracket table charges across the whole of its band. A main job of $58,000 plus a second job of $12,000 totals $70,000. Income tax withheld comes to $13,220.50 and income tax genuinely due is $13,220.50. That is what a correctly chosen secondary code is supposed to do.
What is the ST tax code, and when does it apply?
Tax code ST deducts a flat 34.75% of every dollar a second job pays, and it applies while your total income from every source is $78,101 to $180,000. That rate is 33% income tax plus the 1.75% ACC earners' levy. With a student loan the code is ST SL and the deduction becomes 46.75%.
ST covers the widest band of any secondary code, $78,101 to $180,000, so it is the one people stay on correctly for the longest. It is also the best-matched code in the set, because its 33% income tax component is exactly the bracket rate that applies across its band. Above $180,000 the code becomes SA at 40.75%.
A $2,500.00 monthly payment on ST SL loses $1,168.75 of its gross, of which $868.75 is PAYE and $300.00 is student loan. Every dollar is caught, because the $24,128 repayment threshold belongs to the main job.
Does the ST rate really drop above $156,641?
Yes, and code ST is the only place it shows, because the ACC earners' levy is charged on earnings up to $156,641 and stops there, permanently, for that tax year. Income tax carries on.
So the deduction on a second job coded ST runs 34.75% while the levy applies, drops to 33% once your earnings pass $156,641, then jumps to 39% when your total passes $180,000 and the correct code becomes SA from $180,001. Earning more money briefly lowers your marginal rate, which is real, published by Inland Revenue, and almost never stated.
The cap is annual and applies across all your earnings, not per job. The most anyone pays in earners' levy in 2026–27 is $2,741.22. Tax brackets works the same sequence through with the arithmetic.
What does the wrong secondary code cost across a year?
A code one band too low is not forgiven, it is simply not collected until after 31 March, and the shortfall compounds across every payday because nothing warns you during the year. Payroll applies the code it was given, the money looks right on every payslip, and the difference appears once, in the assessment.
Take the commonest error first. A main job of $14,000 and a second job of $9,000 total $23,000, which sits well past $15,600, so SB was the wrong code all year. Income tax of $2,415.00 was withheld against $2,933.00 genuinely due, leaving about $518.00 to pay.
The same error at a higher income costs more. Coding that $9,000 second job as SB, because $9,000 looks like a small income on its own, withholds $11,765.50 of income tax across the year instead of $13,520.50. The $1,755.00 difference is collected in the assessment.
Changing your tax code stops it from that pay run on, and settles nothing that has already happened. Which tax code am I checks the total for you.
A secondary code is the wrong code for you if…
- This is now your highest-earning job. Jobs swap places when hours change. The main-income code follows the money, so give this employer tax code M and ME and put the secondary code on the other one.
- You picked the code from this job's pay. The band is read off your totalincome. Using the second job's own income almost always lands you one or two codes too low.
- Your two jobs are the only income and one has ended. A secondary code on your only remaining job over-withholds every payday until you change it.
- You have a student loan being repaid. The code takes an SL suffix, such as the student loan suffix. Leaving the suffix off collects nothing during the year and does not reduce the balance.
- You invoice for the second job rather than being on payroll. That is a schedular payment on WT, where you elect your own rate.
- No standard code gets close, because your hours swing wildly. That is what a special tax code (STC) exists for. Inland Revenue sets a rate for your circumstances.
What happens to secondary tax at the end-of-year square-up?
Secondary tax never survives the square-up as a separate thing, because after 31 March Inland Revenue adds every job together and taxes the total through the progressive bands, exactly as though one employer had paid you all of it. Then it subtracts everything that was withheld. A secondary code is only a way of collecting during the year.
Refunds are common on secondary income for one reason: a flat rate cannot know when your second job stopped, or that you only worked ten weeks of the year. Your code was chosen on a forecast total of $71,000, and if the year finished lower, part of every deduction was never due. That surplus comes back as a refund.
Bills come from the opposite error. Two jobs both on M is the worst case, since each employer applies the 10.5% and 17.5% bands to the same income. Choosing SB when the total says SH is the second worst. The student loan line behaves differently again: it is not tax, so it clears your balance rather than returning as a refund, though a genuine over-deduction is still settled.
What else do people ask about a second job?
How much is secondary tax in NZ?
A flat rate on every dollar the second job pays. 12.25% on SB, 19.25% on S, 31.75% on SH, 34.75% on ST and 40.75% on SA. Each already contains the 1.75% ACC earners' levy. The code comes from your total income, not from what the second job pays.
Is secondary tax higher than normal tax?
No. The right secondary code produces almost exactly the tax that the same total would attract in one job. It feels higher because your main job has already used the 10.5% and 17.5% bands, so every dollar of the second job is taxed at your real marginal rate from the first dollar.
How do I choose between SB, S, SH, ST and SA?
Add up everything you expect to earn this year from every source, then take the code whose band that total lands in. A $9,000 weekend job attached to a $62,000 salary is coded on the $71,000 total, which is SH, not on the $9,000. what tax code am I.
What is the S SL tax code?
S SL is code S with the student loan suffix. PAYE is a flat 19.25%, and the suffix adds 12% of every dollar the job pays. There is no repayment threshold on a second job, so the deduction is 31.25% from the first dollar.
What do SB SL, SH SL and ST SL deduct?
SB SL deducts 24.25%, SH SL deducts 43.75% and ST SL deducts 46.75%. Each is the code's own flat rate plus 12% of every dollar. The $24,128 repayment threshold belongs to your main job, so on a second job the deduction starts at the first dollar. The SL suffix explained.
Is tax code S 17.5% or 19.25%?
Both, describing different things. The income tax component is 17.5%. What payroll deducts is 19.25%, because the 1.75% ACC earners' levy sits on top and Inland Revenue publishes the two combined.
What is the difference between S and SB?
The band, not the mechanism. SB covers a total up to $15,600 at 12.25%. S covers $15,601 to $53,500 at 19.25%. Using SB when your total says S under-withholds about 7% of the second job's pay.
Why is my second job taxed at 31.75% when it only pays $12,000?
Because the code comes from your total income. A $58,000 main job plus $12,000 makes $70,000, and every dollar of that second job sits in the 30% bracket. The flat rate is your real marginal rate applied from the first dollar rather than a penalty.
When do I move from SH to ST?
When your total income passes $78,100 for the year. SH covers $53,501 to $78,100 at 31.75%, and ST covers $78,101 to $180,000 at 34.75%. Staying on SH under-withholds 3% of the second job's pay, which Inland Revenue collects after 31 March.
Is SB the same as the M tax code?
No. M is a main-income code that climbs through the progressive brackets as you earn more. SB is a flat 12.25% on every dollar of a second job and never climbs. They share a starting rate and nothing else.
Do I get secondary tax back at the end of the year?
Only if too much came out. After 31 March, Inland Revenue adds your jobs together, works out the tax genuinely due and compares it with everything withheld. Too high a code gives a refund, too low a code gives a bill. There is no separate pot of secondary tax to reclaim.
Can I use tax code M on both of my jobs?
No. M belongs to one job. Used twice, each employer gives you the low bands as though the other did not exist, so you are under-taxed all year and get a bill after 31 March. tax code M.
How much student loan comes out of a second job?
12% of every dollar, with no threshold. The $24,128 a year threshold belongs to your main job only, which is why an SH SL second job loses 43.75% of its gross. The SL suffix explained.
Written by Nathan Kerr, payroll writer and editor2026–27 rates. Last reviewed 25 August 2026.
Where these figures come from
2026–27 tax year (1 April 2026 – 31 March 2027). Last verified 25 August 2026.
Which calculators help with a second job?
- what tax code am IFive questions, one answer
- the student loan suffix12% of every dollar on a second job
- tax code M and METhe main-income code your other job keeps
- changing your tax codeWhat a correction is worth, and when it starts
- tax refund calculatorWhat the square-up gives back, and why
- the New Zealand tax year1 April to 31 March, and what the square-up settles
- New Zealand tax codesEvery code and rate in one table