Written by Henry Smith · Reviewed by Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver — licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931) · Last updated 2026-09-08

ACC Levies NZ 2026/27: Rates, Caps and the Formula

A self-employed carpenter with $90,000 of liable income pays $3,477.60 in ACC levies for the 2026/27 year. A self-employed accountant on the same $90,000 pays $1,687.05. A salaried employee on $80,000 pays $1,400 and never sees the line, because it sits inside PAYE.

Three levies produce those numbers. Almost nobody who pays them can name all three. This guide sets out what each one is, what ACC charges for it, how to work out your own bill, and where the cover stops.

The three types of ACC levy

ACC funds injuries through separate accounts, and each account is fed by its own levy (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

The earners' levy

The earners' levy is paid by everyone who earns salary, wages or self-employed income. ACC says it covers accidents outside the workplace, the ones that happen "doing DIY at home, working out at the gym, playing sport", and that it is "charged at a flat rate for all levy payers" (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). Employees pay it through PAYE. Self-employed people are invoiced after the tax return is filed.

The work levy

The work levy is paid by employers on their liable payroll, and by self-employed people on their own liable income. It covers injuries that happen at work.

It is not a flat rate. Every business and sole trader gets a classification unit, a five-digit code taken from the business industry classification code chosen at GST registration. That code carries its own rate (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, page 3, retrieved 19 August 2026).

A fourth line on a business invoice is not an ACC levy at all. The Working Safer levy is collected by ACC for WorkSafe New Zealand at a flat $0.08 per $100 of liable earnings (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, page 9, retrieved 19 August 2026).

The motor vehicle levy

The motor vehicle levy covers injuries on public roads involving moving vehicles. Petrol owners pay it in two parts, 6 cents a litre at the pump and the rest on the vehicle licence. Diesel and electric owners pay all of it on the licence (ACC, page last published 1 July 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026).

What the three levies add up to in 2026/27

Two people on similar incomes pay very different totals. The reason is almost entirely the work levy.

Built from ACC's and Inland Revenue's published 2026/27 rates, cited in the tables below. The totals are our arithmetic on those rates, not quotes from ACC.

Three caveats. The employee rows use Inland Revenue's GST-inclusive $1.75 per $100. The self-employed rows use ACC's GST-exclusive $1.52 plus GST, which is why the two differ by under $2 on $90,000. The vehicle figures are ACC's GST-exclusive licence levies with GST added. The 6 cents a litre pump levy is left out of every row, because it depends on how much petrol you buy and ACC publishes no average.

Earners' levy rates by year

Inland Revenue publishes the rate, the cap and the maximum payable for each tax year.

Source: Inland Revenue (retrieved 8 September 2026), which states its amounts include GST.

Read the last two columns together. From 2021/22 to 2026/27 the rate rose 26% and the cap rose 20%, so the maximum levy payable rose 51%. Two levers moved at once.

On $80,000 the 2026/27 earners' levy is $1,400. On $200,000 it is $2,741.22, because the levy stops at $156,641 of earnings.

The two earners' levy numbers, reconciled

You will see the levy quoted as $1.52 and as $1.75. Both are right.

ACC's guidebook states $1.52 per $100 and notes that all its rates are shown exclusive of GST (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, page 9, retrieved 19 August 2026). Inland Revenue publishes $1.75 and states its amounts include GST. Gross $1.52 up at 15% and you get $1.748, which rounds to $1.75. That gross-up is our arithmetic, not a published reconciliation.

Which one applies depends on how you pay. A salaried employee has the GST-inclusive figure taken through PAYE. A self-employed person is invoiced the GST-exclusive rate with GST added as its own line, and if you are GST registered that GST is deductible (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

The confirmed rates for all three levies

ACC reviews levies every three years. The 2024 consultation ran from 11 September to 9 October 2024, and Cabinet made the final decisions in December 2024. Three years of rates were set at once, so 2027/28 is already known.

All rates GST exclusive, as published by ACC (retrieved 19 August 2026).

The two payroll levies move in lockstep, both up about 14% across the four years. The motor vehicle levy is up 24%, close to double the pace. If you own a car and earn a wage, the bigger percentage increase is arriving on your rego, not your payslip. That indexing is our arithmetic on ACC's published rates.

Work levy rates by classification unit

ACC publishes a rate per classification unit, not per industry. There is no single "construction" or "farming" number to quote. The economy-wide average for 2026/27 is $0.69 per $100, and no individual business is charged it (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

Standard employer and CoverPlus self-employed rates, GST exclusive, effective 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, from the ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27 levy rates table (retrieved 19 August 2026). Read end to end, the standard rates run from $0.02 to $5.29 per $100. That is a spread of more than 250 to one on the same dollar of income.

Note where the $0.69 average sits. It falls between electrical services at $0.68 and cleaning at $1.00. Quoting the average to an accountant or a roofer tells them nothing about their own bill.

Two rows also correct a claim that gets repeated a lot. Logging, classification unit 03020, is levied at $2.20 per $100, and forestry, classification unit 03010, is levied at the same rate. Neither is charged the four to eight dollars per $100 that circulates in second-hand summaries.

Businesses that have paid at least three work levy invoices may sit in the Experience Rating programme. That prices the same unit from a separate column and adjusts for claims history (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). Every figure above is from the standard column.

Motor vehicle levy rates

Vehicle licence levy rates excluding GST, effective 1 July 2026, plus 6 cents a litre at the pump for petrol vehicles only, from ACC (page last published 1 July 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC states that $25 of each motorcycle and moped rate funds motorcycle safety work.

The petrol and non-petrol split is the line most people miss. A diesel or electric car pays $115.34 on the licence against $56.75 for a petrol car, because the petrol car pays the rest at the pump.

What changed for motorcycles on 1 July 2026

Motorcycle rates changed on 1 July 2026. ACC replaced the old engine-size bands with three sub-classes, 0 to 250cc, 251 to 750cc and 751cc and over. It also lifted the rider share of motorcycle injury costs to 33%, up from 28%, with a further rise to 37% due on 1 July 2027 (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

Petrol motorcycle licence levies excluding GST, from ACC (retrieved 19 August 2026). These sit before the $25 safety component ACC adds on its main motor vehicle page.

Two groups got cheaper and three got dearer. The biggest single move is a 46% rise for machines over 750cc. Add the $25 safety component and the published rates reconcile: $86.93 plus $25 is the $111.93 quoted for mopeds, and $624.93 plus $25 is the $649.93 quoted for large motorcycles. That reconciliation is our arithmetic.

Riders who complete an approved Ride Forever Gold course get a 25% discount. That brings the petrol rates to $255.42, $353.27 and $490.34 across the three bands (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

What income the earners' levy is charged on

Not every dollar Inland Revenue taxes is a dollar ACC levies. The employer's guide sets out two lists (Inland Revenue, IR335 Employer's guide, page 18, retrieved 19 August 2026).

The levy is deducted from salary and wages, overtime, backpay and holiday pay, long-service leave pay, bonuses, taxable allowances, shareholder-employee salaries with PAYE deducted, partner salaries, and salaries to working owners of a look-through company.

The levy is not deducted from schedular payments, retirement payments, redundancy payments, employee share scheme benefits, jury and witness fees, pensions, tax-free allowances, or shareholder-employee salaries with no PAYE deducted. ACC invoices the company separately for that last one.

The schedular payments line matters if you contract. Inland Revenue tells employers not to deduct the levy from schedular payments, because ACC invoices contractors directly. If you are on withholding tax, a bill is coming.

For the self-employed, ACC treats a further set of income as non-liable. Its liable-earnings policy, released under the Official Information Act, lists rental income, interest and dividends, estate and trust income, beneficiary income, pensions, overseas pensions, retirement and redundancy payments, witness fees, silent partner income, and income from a non-active look-through company owner (ACC OIA response GOV-027418, 19 September 2023, retrieved 19 August 2026). Rent and dividends attract no earners' levy. Work does.

Where the levy shows up on your payslip

Usually it does not. Inland Revenue is blunt with employers: "PAYE includes ACC earners' levy already, so no extra calculations are needed" (IR335, page 18, retrieved 19 August 2026). The levy is inside the single PAYE figure, not beside it.

You can see it separated out in two places. The first is the extra-pay table, which prints two columns for the same band.

Extra-pay rates for the tax year ending 31 March 2027, from IR335 page 40 (retrieved 19 August 2026). The gap between the columns is exactly 1.75 percentage points until income passes $156,641, where it closes.

The second is the per-pay cap. Inland Revenue publishes the maximum earnings the levy applies to at each pay frequency: $3,012 weekly, $6,024 fortnightly, $12,048 four-weekly and $13,053 monthly (IR335, page 18, retrieved 19 August 2026). If a single pay goes over those, the levy stops inside that pay.

The cap makes a flat levy stop being flat

The levy is 1.75% of every dollar you earn until $156,641, and then it stops. There is no second bracket, so above the cap the effective rate falls away.

Our arithmetic on the published rate of 1.75% and the published cap of $156,641 (Inland Revenue, retrieved 8 September 2026).

The cap is not an accident of design. Weekly compensation is capped too, at $2,466.20 gross a week from 1 July 2026, so ACC stops levying at roughly the point it stops insuring (ACC Newsroom, 11 June 2026, retrieved 8 September 2026). The further your income sits above the cap, the bigger the slice ACC will never replace.

How to calculate your own ACC levy

If you are self-employed on standard CoverPlus, the whole bill is one line of arithmetic:

Liable income divided by 100, multiplied by the sum of three rates, plus GST.

The three rates are your work levy rate, the earners' levy rate and the Working Safer levy. ACC confirms all three appear as separate lines on a CoverPlus invoice (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026), and states the method as "your liable income multiplied by your levy rate, per $100 of your liable income" (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

Two of the three rates are the same for everyone. The earners' levy is a flat $1.52 per $100 and the Working Safer levy is a flat $0.08 per $100, both excluding GST (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, page 9, retrieved 19 August 2026). Only the work levy rate is yours.

Step one: find your classification unit

Your classification unit is a five-digit code ACC uses to group levy payers with a similar risk of workplace injury. It comes from the business industry classification code you chose when you registered for GST, and it carries its own rate (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, page 3, retrieved 19 August 2026). The code and the rate are printed on your invoice.

One rule catches people out. If more than one unit could apply, a self-employed person must use the unit with the highest rate. A business must do the same unless it can be assigned multiple units. If you build and also design, you are levied as a builder.

Step two: work out your liable income

ACC takes your liable income from what you declared to Inland Revenue, on an IR3 or an IR7 (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). You do not get to nominate it.

Two thresholds then apply for 2026/27 (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). The maximum liable income is $156,641, so anything above it is not levied. The minimum is $50,501, and it only bites if you work full time, which ACC defines as an average of more than 30 hours a week across the tax year. A full-time sole trader who earns less than $50,501 is levied on $50,501 anyway. A part-time one is levied on what they actually earned.

Step three: the arithmetic

Take a full-time self-employed carpenter with $90,000 of liable income. Carpentry services is classification unit 42420, and its standard work levy rate is $1.76 per $100 excluding GST (ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27, levy rates table, retrieved 19 August 2026). The $90,000 sits above the floor and below the ceiling, so all of it is levied.

Rates from the ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27 (retrieved 19 August 2026). ACC confirms GST is added and is deductible, but publishes no worked total, so the last two lines are our arithmetic at 15%.

What the classification code does to the answer

Change one thing. Keep the income at $90,000 and switch the code.

Work levy rates from the ACC Levy Guidebook 2026/27 (retrieved 19 August 2026), with the flat earners' and Working Safer levies added and GST at 15% applied. The totals are our arithmetic.

The spread across those nine is $2,308.05, or 2.4 times from lowest to highest. Two practical points fall out of it.

The floor is not zero. Even on the cheapest code in the country, a self-employed person on $90,000 still pays $1,676.70, because $1,440 of it is the two flat levies before a cent of work levy. Anyone told their bill will be tiny because it is a desk job should expect about $1,700 on $90,000, not a few hundred dollars.

The ceiling is where a code review pays. Roofing at $2.25 against plumbing at $1.35 is $931.50 a year including GST on $90,000, for two codes in the same construction services group.

The three-line check on your own invoice

ACC prints the inputs on the invoice, so this takes about two minutes (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

Check the classification unit description against what you actually do now, not what you did when you registered for GST. The code does not update itself.

Check the employment status field. Full time or part time decides whether the $50,501 minimum applies.

Check the liable income against your return. ACC uses the figure you declared and cannot amend income filed differently with Inland Revenue, so the fix starts at Inland Revenue (ACC OIA response GOV-027418, 19 September 2023, retrieved 19 August 2026).

How ACC levies work for the self-employed

Self-employed people pay all three levies on one invoice, with GST added and deductible if you are registered (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

CoverPlus

CoverPlus is the default ACC cover for self-employed people. Levies are charged on the liable income you declared to Inland Revenue, and weekly compensation is up to 80% of your taxable income from your most recently completed financial year (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). That backward look is the catch. If your income has risen since your last return, your cover has not.

CoverPlus Extra

CoverPlus Extra lets you agree a cover amount in advance. It pays 100% of that amount rather than 80% of last year's figure. For 2026/27 the agreed cover must sit between $40,401 and $125,313 (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). It is levied on the agreed amount from a different column of the same rate table, so it costs more per dollar of cover and removes the lag. The invoice-by-invoice comparison is in ACC levies for the self-employed.

The earnings floor and ceiling by year

Minimum and maximum liable earnings for 2024/25 to 2026/27 and all CoverPlus Extra limits from ACC; the 2027/28 row from ACC (both retrieved 19 August 2026).

What ACC levies fund

Levies fund a defined set of entitlements for personal injury caused by an accident. Every resident and visitor is covered, whoever was at fault.

• Treatment, rehabilitation, help at home, childcare and travel to treatment for a covered injury (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).
• Weekly compensation of up to 80% of pre-injury earnings, usually from day 8 (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026), to a gross maximum of $2,466.20 a week from 1 July 2026 (ACC Newsroom, 11 June 2026, retrieved 8 September 2026).
• A gross minimum of $766.40 a week for a full-time earner, which ACC states is 80% of the adult minimum wage of $958.00 for a 40-hour week (ACC Newsroom, 31 March 2026, retrieved 14 August 2026).
• A lump sum for permanent impairment, once the condition has stabilised.
• Death benefits. From 1 July 2026 that is a funeral grant of $8,236.40, a survivor's grant of $8,830.47 for a partner and $4,415.25 for each child under 18 (ACC Newsroom, 11 June 2026, retrieved 8 September 2026).

Note the size of that last line. Two grants of roughly $8,000 are real, and they are not a mortgage.

What ACC levies do not fund

ACC states plainly what falls outside the scheme: "illness, sickness, or contagious diseases", "stress, hurt feelings or other emotional issues" unless connected to a covered injury, "conditions related to ageing, eg arthritis", most hernias, and injuries that develop gradually unless a work exposure test is met (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

So a cancer diagnosis that stops six months of work draws nothing, however many years of levy you have paid. Neither does a heart attack, a stroke, or a back that degenerates rather than tears.

Even on a covered injury, weekly compensation is up to 80%, so a fifth of the income is not replaced. The weekly maximum annualises to $128,242.40, well below the $156,641 you are levied on. That annualisation is our arithmetic.

Take a household on $100,000 with a $500,000 mortgage and $6,000 of monthly outgoings. Break a leg at work and ACC pays roughly $80,000 a year while you recover, and funds the treatment. Get diagnosed with bowel cancer and need six months off, and ACC pays nothing while the mortgage runs on.

That is the case for private cover on top of the levies. Income protection pays a monthly benefit whether the cause is accident or illness, and some policies integrate with ACC. Trauma insurance pays a lump sum on diagnosis. The full exclusion list is in what ACC does not cover.

ACC cover against private insurance

ACC figures as cited above. The private insurance column describes standard product design, not any specific policy.

The honest limits on these figures

Every rate above is reproduced from ACC or Inland Revenue and scoped to the year beside it. Five limits apply.

Rates change. Earners' and work levy rates reset on 1 April, motor vehicle levies on 1 July. The same figure quoted either side of those dates is right and different.

Totals are our arithmetic. ACC publishes GST-exclusive rates and confirms GST is added to invoices, but publishes no worked GST-inclusive total.

Experience Rating is excluded. Businesses with at least three work levy invoices may be rated on claims history from a separate column of the guidebook. Every figure here uses the standard column.

ACC does not publish industry-level levy ranges. It publishes a rate per classification unit and one economy-wide average. Any table showing a range for "construction" or "forestry" is somebody's estimate, so we have not printed one.

ACC contradicts itself on one historical number. Its levy results page gives 2024/25 maximum liable earnings as $142,286, while its levy calculation page and Inland Revenue both give $142,283 (all retrieved 19 August 2026). We use $142,283, because two of the three sources agree on it and we cannot tell which is the typographical error.

Frequently asked questions

How much is the ACC earners' levy in 2026/27?

$1.75 per $100 of liable earnings including GST, on the first $156,641 you earn, for a maximum of $2,741.22 for the year (Inland Revenue, retrieved 8 September 2026). ACC quotes the same levy as $1.52 excluding GST.

How is my business work levy calculated?

Liable earnings divided by 100, multiplied by the rate for your classification unit (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026). The Working Safer levy of $0.08 per $100 and the earners' levy are added on top, then GST.

What is the difference between CoverPlus and CoverPlus Extra?

CoverPlus is automatic and levied on the income you filed, paying up to 80% of your most recently completed financial year. CoverPlus Extra is levied on a cover amount agreed in advance, between $40,401 and $125,313 for 2026/27, and pays 100% of it (ACC, retrieved 19 August 2026).

Can I reduce my ACC levies?

An employer can, through Experience Rating and by checking the classification unit still describes the work. A rider can, through the 25% Ride Forever Gold discount. An employee cannot, because the earners' levy is a flat rate on all liable earnings.

Why is my first self-employed ACC invoice so large?

Because it arrives after the tax return is filed and often covers more than one period. The mechanics, and what to expect, are set out in ACC levies for the self-employed.

Where to take this next

Your levies are fixed. What is not fixed is what happens to your income when the thing that stops you working is an illness, which is the half of the risk the levies do not fund. Size it with our ACC gap calculator or our income protection calculator, then talk to an adviser about what it costs on your file.

Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name. Our panel is listed on our disclosure page. We are paid commission by the insurer if you take out cover, which is disclosed to you before you decide.

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References

• ACC, Levy Guidebook 2026/27 (rates effective 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027, retrieved 19 August 2026): every classification unit rate, the earners' and Working Safer levy rates, the GST-exclusive note, and the highest-rate rule for multiple units
• ACC, Levy results (retrieved 19 August 2026): Cabinet-confirmed levy rates to 2027/28, liable-earnings limits, and the motorcycle changes
• ACC, Paying levies if you own or drive a vehicle (page last published 1 July 2026, retrieved 19 August 2026): licence levy by vehicle class, the 6 cents a litre petrol levy, the $25 motorcycle safety component and the Ride Forever rates
• ACC, Motorcycle levy changes (retrieved 19 August 2026): petrol motorcycle licence levies by engine band, 2025/26 against 2026/27
• ACC, Understanding levies if you work or own a business (retrieved 19 August 2026): what each levy covers
• ACC, Calculating your levies (retrieved 19 August 2026): the per $100 formula, minimum and maximum liable income, CoverPlus Extra limits and the full-time definition
• ACC, Understanding your levy invoice (retrieved 19 August 2026): classification units and Experience Rating
• ACC, Understand your CoverPlus invoice (retrieved 19 August 2026): the levy lines, the income source and the GST line
• ACC, Cover for self-employed and CoverPlus Extra (retrieved 19 August 2026): the two bases and the 2026/27 cover limits
• ACC, OIA response GOV-027418, levy liable earnings policy (19 September 2023, retrieved 19 August 2026): non-liable income categories
• ACC, What we cover, injuries we don't cover and financial support (retrieved 19 August 2026): entitlements, exclusions and the 80% figure
• ACC Newsroom, changes to ACC client payments from 1 July 2026 (11 June 2026, retrieved 8 September 2026): maximum weekly compensation, funeral and survivor's grants
• ACC Newsroom, changes to client payments from 1 April 2026 (31 March 2026, retrieved 14 August 2026): the full-time minimum weekly rate
• Inland Revenue, ACC earners' levy rates (retrieved 8 September 2026): GST-inclusive rate, cap and maximum levy by tax year
• Inland Revenue, IR335 Employer's guide (retrieved 19 August 2026): liable and non-liable payments, PAYE treatment, the extra-pay table and the per-pay maximums
• Policywise, compare income protection insurance (retrieved 19 August 2026): the 75% of gross pre-disability income limit

Disclaimer: This article is general information only. It is not personalised financial advice, tax advice or an ACC quote. Every levy figure is reproduced from ACC or Inland Revenue as at the date stated beside it. Earners' and work levy rates change on 1 April and motor vehicle levy rates on 1 July each year. Totals shown are our arithmetic on those published rates for the stated profiles. Financial advice is provided by Craig Smith Business Services Limited, trading as Smiths Insurance & KiwiSaver, a licensed Financial Advice Provider (FSP712931). QuoteHub is a trading name.

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