CoverPlus vs CoverPlus Extra: The Self-Employed Choice
If you are self-employed in New Zealand, ACC puts you on standard CoverPlus automatically, and it pays weekly compensation at up to 80% of your taxable income from your most recently completed financial year, as ACC sets out for self-employed cover. CoverPlus Extra (CPX) is optional cover you apply for: you agree an annual figure with ACC in advance and ACC pays 100% of it, less tax, in weekly instalments, per ACC's CPX options. The decision comes down to one question , do you want ACC reconstructing your income after the accident, or the number settled before it?
How standard CoverPlus calculates your payment
CoverPlus follows your tax return. ACC takes the liable earnings you filed with Inland Revenue and pays a proportion of them , fine when last year looked like this year, a problem when it did not.
ACC's own worked examples show three different calculations depending on how long you have been trading, in its guide to calculating weekly compensation for the self-employed (published November 2025):
- Newly self-employed, no tax year end passed. ACC uses any PAYE earnings in the 52 weeks before your injury, divided by the weeks worked. Self-employed earnings are excluded because no return has been filed , and ACC states plainly that if you had no PAYE income in that window and do not qualify for the full-time minimum, your payment may be zero dollars.
- Recently self-employed, one tax year end passed. Declared earnings from the last tax year plus PAYE in the previous 52 weeks, divided by the number of weeks worked, then paid at 80%, as ACC's example sets out.
- Established, two or more tax year ends passed. The same earnings base, but divided by 52 regardless of how many weeks you actually worked, again per ACC.
That third rule is where a bad year bites. A twelve-month figure spread across 52 weeks means a quiet year, a period out of the market, or a heavy investment year all drag your entitlement down , and it stays down until the next return is filed and assessed.
There are floors and ceilings. From 1 April 2026 the gross minimum weekly compensation for a full-time earner is $766.40, equal to 80% of the adult minimum wage of $958.00 for a 40-hour week, and the gross maximum rate rose to $2,466.20 a week from 1 July 2026.
Two more mechanics matter. If your return is not filed, ACC may approve interim, estimated or advance payments for up to three months, then reassess once it lands and claw back any overpayment. And if your business keeps earning while you recover, ACC abates the payment so your total does not exceed your calculated rate , both described on ACC's weekly compensation page for the self-employed. For an owner whose company keeps invoicing without them, that second clause can be the whole story.
How CoverPlus Extra changes the arithmetic
Under CPX you nominate an annual amount and ACC agrees it. For the levy year 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 you can apply for any figure between $40,401 and $125,313, with certain amounts requiring approval.
That band is not arbitrary. Maximum liable earnings for 2026/27 are $156,641 under the Accident Compensation (Work Account Levies) Regulations 2025, and the full-time minimum threshold is $50,501 under regulation 7. Take 80% of each and you land within a dollar of the CPX floor and ceiling. CPX does not buy more headroom than the scheme allows , it buys certainty inside it.
Two payment options exist. Full compensation pays 100% of the agreed cover, minus tax, until you can return to full-time work. Lower Levels of Weekly Compensation trades a slightly lower levy for payments that reduce as you return part-time and stop once you are working at least 30 hours a week , both options are described by ACC.
Read the policy conditions before relying on it. Weekly compensation starts seven days after incapacity, the policy does not cover an injury suffered before its start date, ACC adjusts payments annually for the relevant cost of living index, and the policy terminates the moment you stop being self-employed, with any payments covering later periods repayable , all per the CPX terms and conditions (ACC5345a, March 2025).
What CPX costs in levy terms
CPX is not free certainty. The levy structure changes in three ways.
First, the base. Standard CoverPlus is levied on the liable earnings you filed; CPX is levied per $100 of your agreed level of weekly compensation, at rates in a separate schedule from the standard Work Account rates , Schedule 5 for 2026/27, under the same regulations. ACC describes CPX as carrying higher levy rates to provide the additional policy benefits. You pay one or the other, not both: regulation 15 requires either the compensation levy or the Work Account levy.
Second, the non-abatement loading. If your agreement does not provide for compensation to reduce when you earn, regulation 14 adds a separate "non-abatement part" to the levy. That is the mechanical reason the Lower Levels option is cheaper , you are declining the component that keeps paying you in full while the business earns.
Third, the flat pieces: the Earners' levy at $1.75 per $100 (1.75%), including GST, for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, and the Working Safer Levy at a flat 8 cents for every $100 of your agreed CPX cover. Because the Work Account portion depends entirely on your classification unit, ACC's own CPX levy calculator is the only reliable way to price your case.
Side by side
| What it decides | Standard CoverPlus | CoverPlus Extra |
|---|---|---|
| Basis of payment | Up to 80% of the most recently completed year's taxable income (ACC) | 100% of the agreed cover, minus tax (ACC) |
| Proof of loss at claim time | Required (ACC product comparison) | Not required, as the amount is agreed (ACC product comparison) |
| Financial assessment to set cover | Not applicable (ACC product comparison) | Yes, up front and subject to approval (ACC product comparison) |
| If the business keeps earning | Abatement can reduce the payment (ACC) | Unchanged on full compensation; reduced if you chose Lower Levels (ACC) |
| Cover range, 1 Apr 2026 to 31 Mar 2027 | Levied on filed earnings, capped at $156,641 (Work Account Levies Regulations 2025) | Agreed between $40,401 and $125,313 (ACC) |
| Waiting period | Seven days (ACC product comparison) | Seven days (CPX terms and conditions) |
| When it must be in place | Automatic from the day you start trading (ACC product comparison) | Before the accident; no cover for injuries predating the policy (CPX terms and conditions) |
The paperwork does not disappear , it moves
Both options ask you to evidence your income. They just ask at opposite ends. CoverPlus asks nothing when you start and everything when you claim: a filed return, a demonstrable loss, and ongoing disclosure of what the business earns while you are off. CPX asks for a financial assessment when you apply so ACC can set an appropriate amount, then asks for no proof of loss at all when you claim, as ACC's product comparison states.
Front-loading that assessment carries its own duty. ACC can terminate a CPX policy or amend the cover amount if material information was not disclosed at any time, and overpaid compensation is recoverable, under clauses 6.4 and 6.7 of the terms. An agreed figure is only as safe as the information behind it.
Who each genuinely suits
Standard CoverPlus is a reasonable default if you are established, your filed income is stable and broadly reflects what you earn now, you work full-time, and your business stops earning when you do. Nothing to apply for, nothing to renew, and the calculation will land close to where you expect.
CoverPlus Extra earns its levy in four situations. If your income is seasonal or lumpy, the agreed figure removes the lottery of which year ACC happens to look at. If you are newly self-employed, it replaces an entitlement that could be very small with one you have chosen , ACC lists people with no earnings history among those CPX suits, on its CPX page. If you are a non-PAYE shareholder-employee, it is one of the few routes to a defined figure. And if your company keeps generating revenue while you are laid up, full compensation is the only version that does not abate.
Both share one limit no agreed figure fixes: ACC covers injury, not illness. A cancer diagnosis, a cardiac event or a degenerative back condition sits outside the scheme , the territory covered in what ACC does not cover and in ACC versus private insurance. The CPX ceiling is also a real ceiling; above it, a top-up sits in income protection rather than in ACC.
Your next step
Check your classification unit and current cover setting in MyACC for Business, then run your own numbers through ACC's CPX levy calculator , the Work Account portion varies too much by trade for anyone to generalise. After that, work out what remains uncovered once ACC has done its part: our ACC gap calculator and the ACC overview both start from your real figures.
If you want the private-cover side of that picture compared across insurers and explained by a person, start a comparison and we will talk it through with you.
General information about the ACC scheme, not personalised financial advice. Figures are those published for the levy year beginning 1 April 2026 and change annually. Financial advice services are provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931).
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