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Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek


#182597 22-Oct-2015 17:08
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I signed up to Kiwisaver about 3 months ago- I hadn't previously been in the scheme, but decided now was a good time. So the three month stand down period has passed now, and whatever IRD had (money wise) was transferred to my preferred scheme - sweet.

I was checking in on my pay slip to see how much had been contributed so far, and my payslip indicated that my employer had matched me at 3% - so all fine there, too.
Then I went to check in at IRD (on their website) to see what the kiwisaver tab was showing. This is where it gets a little tricky;

Both kiwisaver (IRD) and my scheme provider are showing the same information as each other, in that, my contributions are significantly higher than my employer contributions.
I rang IRD and they had said that there is some unprocessed employer contributions from September.
The lovely lady on the phone also mentioned that employer contributions are taxed at the appropriate income tax rate when they are sent over (calculated at Yearly income + contributions to determine tax bracket).
So accounting for the unprocessed funds, and for tax, my numbers still don't quite stack up- not quite as significant difference as before, however, still not reconciling to me.

Maybe I've missed something somewhere (more than likely), but is this expected? Hs anyone else run into the same issue?


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Poll
343 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #1411253 22-Oct-2015 17:12
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When I first signed up for kiwisaver it took about half a year before employer contributions were consistently coming through, the numbers balanced out very quickly with a few months being higher than normal including the earlier months contributions.



  #1411258 22-Oct-2015 17:32
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Yes, out of the 3% that your employer contributes, they have to take out ESCT tax and send it onto the IRD. The levels are:

$0 to $16,800  10.5%
$16,801 to $57,600  17.5%
$57,601 to $84,000  30%
$84,001 upwards  33%

Prior to 1 April 2011 (I think) kiwisaver contributions were exempted from ESCT so you got the full amount. Also no longer.

Your contributions have already been taxed (in the gross income figure), so the full amount of your employee contributions on your payslip ends up with your kiwisaver provider

Also, any employer (and employee) contributions do take a while to get through the system as for most employers they don't file their PAYE return until the 20th of the following month.

robcreid
243 posts

Master Geek


  #1411261 22-Oct-2015 17:42
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I had the same issue with mine when I started.
I think it is because the cycle by which your employer pays IRD their contribution may be different to your pay cycle.

Here is what IRD say http://www.kiwisaver.govt.nz/already/track-contrib/match/

It makes it really hard if you want to reconcile all the payments.

I started maintaining a spreadsheet of my payslip contributions against what IRD showed and while individual amounts almost never seemed to match the total would eventually match.    




k1w1k1d
1522 posts

Uber Geek


  #1411309 22-Oct-2015 18:32
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I have been in Kiwisaver since it first started and have never been able to reconcile the payments.
I just gave up trying.

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek


  #1411507 23-Oct-2015 09:05
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THanks all - A bit annoying that we can't track the payments easily. the Employer contributions are split into multiple different payments, as mentioned above.
I can definitely see this being a "Good luck tracking, ever" situation. 

I really don't understand why the employer contributions are able to do that- I mean I understand for a big employer they will do it on a certain day of the month, so the contributions will be out by a month or so, but then why have multiple payments? Why not just one. 
Unless they're trying to maximize on the Interest of it sitting for the extra few weeks or something? I dunno.

A little more comforting that others have found the same.

Also thanks robcreid for the link. Definitely cleared up a couple of things.



Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek


  #1411509 23-Oct-2015 09:08
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robcreid:
It makes it really hard if you want to reconcile all the payments.

I started maintaining a spreadsheet of my payslip contributions against what IRD showed and while individual amounts almost never seemed to match the total would eventually match.    



Out of curiosity, how is your spreadsheet tracking it? Is it just using calculating the total of the amounts entered into kiwisaver? Or do you have some tricky formulas in excel?

If the latter, would you mind sharing please? :)

clinty
1182 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

  #1411512 23-Oct-2015 09:13
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Aaroona: 

I really don't understand why the employer contributions are able to do that- I mean I understand for a big employer they will do it on a certain day of the month, so the contributions will be out by a month or so, but then why have multiple payments? Why not just one. 
Unless they're trying to maximize on the Interest of it sitting for the extra few weeks or something? I dunno.



Employers ( generally) make one payment to the IRD on (or before) the 20th of the month- this payment is (generally) all the PAYE deductions (PAYE, Kiwisaver, Child support etc), for all employees, for the previous month, lumped into one payment.

A schedule is also logged with the IRD detailing how that payment should be split up and what amounts go to what accounts etc. This makes it simple for employers and reduces time on compliance, paperwork, bank fees etc

Clint

 
 
 

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DizzyD
523 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #1411513 23-Oct-2015 09:13
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k1w1k1d: I have been in Kiwisaver since it first started and have never been able to reconcile the payments.
I just gave up trying.


yes its really odd.
My Kiwisaver is with AMP. If I compare balances on my AMP online Portfolio and via the Kiwisaver website they are never the same. Transaction details also differ. I don't see any "Employer contribution" via AMP, everything shows up as "Regular Contribution". I only see Employer contributions via the kiwisaver wesbite. Really confusing actually. 

n4

n4
959 posts

Ultimate Geek


  #1411576 23-Oct-2015 10:28
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DizzyD:
k1w1k1d: I have been in Kiwisaver since it first started and have never been able to reconcile the payments.
I just gave up trying.


yes its really odd.
My Kiwisaver is with AMP. If I compare balances on my AMP online Portfolio and via the Kiwisaver website they are never the same. Transaction details also differ. I don't see any "Employer contribution" via AMP, everything shows up as "Regular Contribution". I only see Employer contributions via the kiwisaver wesbite. Really confusing actually. 


I thought the Kiwisaver website only showed actual contributions, but your Investment fund should show your investment gains/losses. So I would never expect them to match?




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DizzyD
523 posts

Ultimate Geek
Inactive user


  #1411602 23-Oct-2015 10:37
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n4:
DizzyD:
k1w1k1d: I have been in Kiwisaver since it first started and have never been able to reconcile the payments.
I just gave up trying.


yes its really odd.
My Kiwisaver is with AMP. If I compare balances on my AMP online Portfolio and via the Kiwisaver website they are never the same. Transaction details also differ. I don't see any "Employer contribution" via AMP, everything shows up as "Regular Contribution". I only see Employer contributions via the kiwisaver wesbite. Really confusing actually. 


I thought the Kiwisaver website only showed actual contributions, but your Investment fund should show your investment gains/losses. So I would never expect them to match?


Yes you right. Very dumb of me. But thanks for pointing this out. I have always wondered why they not the same. The AMP Portfolio shows interest and Fees (grrrrrr). 

Aaroona

3196 posts

Uber Geek


  #1411619 23-Oct-2015 10:38
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While true- the ASB scheme is able to separate out employee, employee and interest transactions.
So you would be able to get the figures to match via that.

robcreid
243 posts

Master Geek


  #1411831 23-Oct-2015 14:01
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Aaroona: 

Out of curiosity, how is your spreadsheet tracking it? Is it just using calculating the total of the amounts entered into kiwisaver? Or do you have some tricky formulas in excel?

If the latter, would you mind sharing please? :)

Nothing fancy sorry.
It was just manually entering employer contributions shown on my payslips and on IRD in separate columns and then having a second column for each showing the cumulative totals.
It was just a simple way of checking that even through the individual payments never matched the cumulative totals seemed to match up every few months.
I only maintained it for a year or so until I was convinced I wasn't being shafted.

    

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