Automated income assessments and PIR updates

Inland Revenue to update incorrect PIRs

Following legislative and system changes, Inland Revenue (IR) has fully automated most income tax assessments. Investors will be sent notifications where Inland Revenue believe their Prescribed Investor Rate (PIR) is incorrect, and investment providers such as MAS will also be instructed to change a PIR for a scheme member. 

Your PIR is the rate used to calculate how much tax we will pay on your behalf on your taxable income in the MAS KiwiSaver Plan or MAS Retirement Savings Plan. When you join either Plan, you must tell us what your PIR is, otherwise it is automatically set at the highest rate (28%).

Following the changes, Inland Revenue will be able to assess whether the PIR we hold for you is correct and they can instruct us to change it if they deem it to be incorrect. They will let you know if they do this and you can instruct us to change it to a different rate if you believe that IR's records are incorrect. 

You can view your income and tax rate details in myIR. The total income information is used to calculate your PIR. Your rate for the current tax year is whichever of the last two tax years gives you the lowest rate. If you do not have myIR you can register here. You can calculate your PIR here.

If you are living overseas

If you are living overseas and as a result have a low level of NZ-sourced income, IR may calculate that you should be on a PIR lower than 28% if you have not advised IR that you are not a NZ tax resident. However, if you are no longer a NZ tax resident then your PIR should be 28%, and you should update your residency details, including your overseas address through myIR, and also advise MAS. 

Learn more on tax residency here.