End of tax year procedures - NZ
Prepare for the new tax year in MYOB Acumatica — Payroll by following these end of tax year procedures for supervisors or payroll administrators.
You must complete these procedures before closing your first pay with a payment date in the new tax year.
Before getting started, make sure you're familiar with the payroll compliance changes for the new tax year.
If you'd like help with your end of tax year procedures, contact your MYOB Acumatica — Payroll consultant or email csenterprise@myob.com to book one of ours.
1. Run your reports
This section lists reports that can help your organisation to reconcile your financial records for the previous tax year and help set up employee records for the new tax year.
-
Pay Activity Details Data report
-
Pay Summary report
-
Superannuation report
-
ESCT report
Make sure you run your end-of-year reports before you close any pays for the new tax year, and that you include all employees who worked for your organisation (not just current employees). Closing the first pay period of the new tax year resets all of the year-to-date accumulators on employee's payslips.
2. Review default rates
Business ACC default rates
If you use MYOB Acumatica — Payroll for managing general ledgers, it's good to check if your business's default Business ACC Rates and Business Classification Codes (BIC) or Classification Units (CU) are up to date.
Business ACC Levy Rates aren't the same as ACC Levy rates, which are used as part of tax calculations for an employee. For more details, see Calculating your levies.
You can check these on the ACC Rates screen.
You can then change the employee's ACC code on the Employee Defaults tab of the Pay Details screen.
Pay item and standard pay settings
If your company's financial year is same as its tax year, check your employee pay item and standard pay settings are up to date.
3. Meet minimum wage requirements
On the Pay Group tab of the Pay Details screen or the Employee's Current Pay screen, you can check if your employees' salaries and rates are above minimum wage limits.
If you use MYOB Acumatica — Workforce Management and need to update minimum wage rates part-way through a pay period, see our help page on how to do so.
The Pay Activity Details Data report is helpful when verifying that your employees' rates comply with the minimum wage rate for the new tax year. It can also help identify which employees might need their salary/wage rates revised.
4. Recalculate ESCT rates
At the beginning of each tax year, you need to work out the ESCT rates for your staff. This varies for each employee, as it’s based on their salary or wage for the previous year plus their employer contribution.
ESCT rates aren't automatically calculated in MYOB Acumatica — Payroll. So, before you open the first pay of the new tax year, make sure you calculate ESCT rates and update them on the Taxation tab of the Pay Details screen.
The ESCT Rate Review Report (MPPP2020) can help you calculate your employee's ESCT rates for the next tax year.
Once you calculate an employee's ESCT rate, it remains the same for the whole tax year, even if there are changes to their salary or wages during the tax year.
Employee situation | What to do |
Employee worked for you for the entire previous tax year |
When an employee's start date is before the previous tax year's start date, then their ESCT rate depends on ESCT threshold value, which you can calculate using the following formula:ESCT Threshold = Total Gross Income in Previous Tax Year + Total Gross Employer’s Superannuation Contributions in Previous Tax Year. |
Employee started in the middle of the previous tax year | If an employee's start date is after the previous tax year's start date, but before the start of the current tax year, their ESCT rate value is based on their expected income for the current tax year:ESCT Threshold = (Estimated Gross Income per pay for current Tax Year + Estimated Gross Employer’s Superannuation Contributions per pay for current Tax Year) / Number of days in the pay frequency in current Tax Year * Number days in current Tax Year (i.e. 365). |
Employee started in the middle of the current tax year | For employees starting in the middle of the current tax year (not the previous tax year), ESCT Rates for those employees for the current tax year are expected to be set as part of their onboarding process, as per the IR page on deducting ESCT from each employer contribution. |
5. Update public holiday dates on the work calendar
Every year, you need to add the coming year's public holidays to your employee work calendars. There are no mondayised holidays in the 2025-26 tax year.
For details of the 2025 and 2026 public holidays, see Employment New Zealand – Public holidays and anniversary dates.
When you update a work calendar, it impacts all employees that use the same calendar. If you only want to make changes for certain employees, you can create a new calendar for them with desired settings. For more details, see the annual leave white paper.
- Go to the Work Calendar form.
- Select the calendar you want to update.
- On the Exceptions tab, click the Add Row icon (+).
- In the new row, enter the date for the holiday.
- Complete the Description, Start Time and End Time fields.
- On the form toolbar, click the Save icon
.
6. Check financial calendars
Depending on how your site is set up, you can do this step on either the Master Financial Calendar form or the Company Financial Calendar form.
You need to have a financial calendar with open periods for the 2025–26 tax year. In the Financial Year field, make sure you have a 2026 calendar.
If you don’t have a 2026 calendar, generate one:
-
Click Generate Calendar on the form toolbar.
-
In the Generate GL Calendar window:
-
Set the From Year to 2025.
-
Set the To Year to 2026.
-
-
Click OK.
To open the periods for the 2026 calendar:
-
In the Financial Year field, select the 2026 calendar.
-
On the form toolbar, click the three dots icon (…) and choose Open Periods. The Manage Financial Periods form (GL503000) opens.
-
If the Status column shows the periods are Inactive, you need to open them. Select Close from the Action dropdown.
-
Set the To Year field to 2026.
-
On the form toolbar, click Process All.
7. Check tailored tax codes
The IR issues tailored tax codes (STCs) by tax year, so they always expire on 1 April the following year.
Unless IR issue you with a new tailored tax code or deduction rate (IR23) certificate, or if they advise you to continue using the old rate, you should inform your employees that you are obligated to set their tax code to ND.
Otherwise, their tax is calculated at the highest rate and prevents student loan repayments. This could also incur late payment penalties for the employee.
It's recommended that you identify and advise affected employees of the consequences of not receiving their new year's tax rate, ensuring that you and your employees have enough time to respond to any required tax changes before the first pay in the new tax year.
8. Check student loan deduction rates
Make sure the standard student loan, SLCIR and SLBOR rates are set correctly in the system for the employee (if applicable) in the Taxation tab of the Pay Details form. To change from the standard rates, see Overriding legislated student loan rates.