How to pay

How to pay your child support

If you are a paying parent, this section contains important details for you on how you can pay child support by:

• Having deductions from your benefit, if you receive a benefit from Work and Income.
• Arranging for automatic payments from your bank account.
• Making online payments.
• Posting regular cheques to Inland Revenue.
• Paying by cash, cheque or EFTPOS at any Westpac branch.
• Arranging for your employer to make deductions from your wages each payday, if you have ever got behind in your payments.
• Using your debit or credit card.

Additional information is available about how to make payments if you are a paying parent who is living outside New Zealand from our Paying parents who live in Australia factsheet (IR158).

Deductions from a Work and Income benefit

If you receive a benefit from Work and Income, we will ask them to automatically deduct your child support payments before your benefit is paid into your bank account.

Work and Income beneficiaries are not able to choose other ways of making child support payments. If you are a paying parent and you are going on a Work and Income benefit, you must contact us so automatic deductions can begin.

Automatic payments from your bank account

An easy way to make child support payments is to make automatic payments or direct credit arrangements through your bank account. The advantages of this approach are:

• you can be sure that your payments are made on time
• you are saved the bother of posting or delivering a cheque.

If you choose to pay child support through automatic payments:

• fill in an automatic payment authority from Inland Revenue
• take the automatic payment authority to your bank for them to action.

For more information and assistance with the automatic payment authority, see our leaflet Making payments (IR584). Please contact us if you have any problems.

Making online child support payments

All major banks in New Zealand (and some international banks) have an internet banking facility, and you can use this to make online child support payments.

If you're an existing customer of ANZ, ASB, BankDirect, Bank of New Zealand, Kiwibank, The National Bank, New Zealand Home Loans, OrbitRemit, Sovereign Home Loans or Westpac (links to these sites are available on our Related websites section of our site) you can make online child support payments using specialised tax payment internet banking facilities.

The ANZ, ASB, BankDirect, Bank of New Zealand, Kiwibank, The National Bank, New Zealand Home Loans, Sovereign Home Loans or Westpac facilities will prompt you to enter the relevant details on-screen.

You can also set up bill payments for child support in advance, but you will need to check with your bank for more details.

With other banks, when you make an online payment you must make sure you supply sufficient details for us to credit your payment to your child support account. We need you to tell us:

• your IRD number
• your tax type (NCP).

Your bank should allow you to enter these details into three payment details fields, like this:

 

Particulars field

This is your IRD number - start from the left and leave the remaining boxes blank.

Payee code field

Enter:

• three zeroes then a space
• the word "TAX" then a space, and
• the letters "NCP" then a space.

Reference field

Leave this field blank.

If you're not prompted by your internet banking facility for your payment details, you'll need to contact your bank tomake sure those details can be included with your payment.

Inland Revenue bank account

Electronic payments to Inland Revenue should be made to bank account number 03  0049  0001100  27

ASB customers only: As you are required by your bank to enter three digits in the account suffix number, the bank account number you use is: 03  0049  0001100  027.

Posting regular cheques to Inland Revenue

Another option is to pay child support by posting cheques to Inland Revenue. The advantages of this method are:

• it is a secure way to pay
• if you post your cheque in New Zealand you can post it on the due date, your payment won't be late provided that the postmark is not after the due date.  (This does not apply to cheques posted from overseas).
• if you mail your cheque early, you can postdate it so it can't be drawn on until the due date.

Post your payment slip and cheque to one of these addresses:

• PO Box 1535, Hamilton
• PO Box 39050, Wellington
• PO Box 3754, Christchurch

Remember to:

• include the payment slip with each cheque you send
• make your cheques payable to Inland Revenue Department
• cross your cheques Not transferable
• never send cash.

Instead of posting your cheque, you can drop it, together with the payment slip, into the box at your local Inland Revenue office. Please note that payments are no longer accepted at Inland Revenue counters. We prefer you to mail the cheque and payment slip to Inland Revenue at one of the addresses you can find in the Contact us section.

Manual payments at Westpac

You can make regular child support payments by cash, cheque or EFTPOS at any Westpac branch. If you choose this option, we send you a monthly statement with a printed payment slip to attach to your payments. You must use these payment slips (or the Inland Revenue deposit slips available at Westpac) each time you make a payment.

To accept a payment, Westpac must have the following details on your payment (or deposit) slip:

• your IRD number
• the tax code that the payment relates to:
  • for a paying parent the tax code is NCP
  • for a custodian the tax code is CPR
  • for a child support employer the tax code is CSE
• the date of the end of period that your payment covers (not the date when the payment is made)
• the amount you are paying.

Note: Westpac will collect supporting documents relevant to payments, but they do not have access to your records. Post all other correspondence and documents to Inland Revenue. If you have queries or need more information, please call us on freephone 0800 221 221 (Westpac branches provide a telephone for your use).

If your employer makes deductions

If you are in paid employment, and have ever got behind in your payments, you can arrange for your employer to deduct your child support from your wages.  If you choose this option, please contact us to arrange it.

By law, if we instruct employers to make these deductions, they must do so. The arrangement is confidential. Employers:

• are not allowed to use this information to discriminate against you in any way
• are not allowed to give information about child support to other people.

If you have a question or problem about the amount of child support deducted from your pay, please contact us on freephone 0800 221 221.

If you are an employer, see more about the process of making deductions as an employer.

Debit or credit card payment

You can make a debit or credit card payment through our online facility with either MasterCard or Visa.

From 1 July 2008, people who use a debit or credit card to make a child support payment will no longer incur a 2.49% bank convenience fee.

Make a debit or credit card payment now >

 

Date published: 30 Jun 2008

Back to top