Levies are the payments self-employed individuals make to ACC for personal injury cover.
What levies do I pay?
Self-employed people have to pay these levies each year:
- ACC CoverPlus or ACC CoverPlus Extra levies (work levy) for work-related injury cover
- The Residual Levy. In 1999 the Government changed the way ACC collected levies to a fully-funded basis. Up until that time ACC had only collected enough in levies to pay for cash outgoings in each year. This means there are insufficient funds for the ongoing costs of long-term injuries that occurred prior to 1999, and to pay for these ongoing costs ACC must collect a residual levy for both work and non-work claims. All levy payers have to pay this portion, even if they weren’t in business at that time, or had no injuries. This levy will stop after the 2018/19 year.
- The Earners’ Levy. This covers you for injuries outside of work (except motor vehicle injuries that are covered by an ACC levy collected as part of motor vehicle registration, and petrol usage). The same income used to calculate the work levy is used to calculate the earners’ levy. Together the work and non-work levies give you 24 hour accident cover. Employees pay this same earner levy via their tax payments that is forwarded to ACC by Inland Revenue.
- Health and Safety in Employment (HSE) Levy. This levy is collected on behalf of the Government and helps fund Occupational Health & Safety (OSH) which is run by the Department of Labour.
Experience Rating
On 1 April 2011, ACC introduced experience rating, a system of modifying a business’s ACC Work levy based on its claims history. Experience rating recognises and rewards business owners (including self-employed people) with good claims experience, and encourages a focus on improving workplace safety and making New Zealand businesses better places to work.
ACC CoverPlus and ACC CoverPlus Extra levies
These levies pay for the current and future costs of work-related injury claims that occur in the levy year, 1 April to 31 March.
Not everyone pays the same rate for their levies, and the rates can change from year to year.
For information about what each levy covers please visit: Your invoice pack: Self-employed.
Find out more about why levies change.
Why are there different rates?
It’s only fair that different industries pay different rates. Some industries not only make a higher number of ACC claims, but also have a higher risk of serious harm injuries.
To reflect this, ACC groups employers with similar business activities and risks of work-related injury into classification units.
To set the levy rates for your classification unit each year, ACC reviews:
- the cost of work-related injuries for your classification unit
- the total liable earnings for your classification unit.
How are my levies calculated?
Your ACC CoverPlus levy is calculated on:
- your self-employed liable earnings from the previous year
- the classification unit rate for your business activity.
Your ACC CoverPlus Extra levy is calculated on:
- the level of cover you agree with ACC
- the classification unit rate for your business activity.
How can I find out what my levies will be?
ACC’s online calculators help you work out how much you next levy invoice might be. The calculators help work out your liable earnings or classification unit.
Levies diagram
Last updated: 9 August 2011