Work out your tax code
Casual agricultural workers (including shearers or shearing shedhands)
If you work as a casual agricultural worker, your tax code will be CAE.
Write CAE in the circle under question 2 of the Tax code declaration (IR330) form, then give the completed form to your employer. Make sure you complete questions 1-4 of the IR330.
You can download an IR330 or complete it online - go to "Forms and guides".
Definition
Casual agricultural workers are people who are engaged in casual seasonal agricultural work on a day-to-day basis for up to three months.
The flat rate of PAYE for casual agricultural employees, for the period (1 April - 31 March) is 22.4 cents in the dollar. Student loan repayments are not deducted from casual agricultural employees' income.
If you think the CAE tax code will result in you paying either not enough or too much tax, you may need to apply for a special tax code.
Note
Self-employed contractors working under agricultural contracts for maintenance, development or other work on farming or agricultural land fall under the schedular payment requirements (formerly withholding payment requirements).
Example
Mark works as a teacher earning $52,000 a year for this job.
During shearing season he works as a shedhand for a friend. He works on a day-to-day basis, when needed, and will only be helping out for a month.
Ordinarily, Mark would choose the tax code CAE, for the shedhand work. However, because of Mark's normal salary, if he chose CAE, he could end up with a tax bill at the end of the year.
Instead, Mark applies for a special tax code.
Find out more about special tax codes.
Note
We've provided this decision tree to help you work out your tax code. We welcome your feedback on how useful you found it.
Date published: 01 Jul 2008
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