Becoming an employer

When you start employing staff, you must register with us as an employer. You must also decide whether your staff are employees or self-employed contractors as the tax treatment for each is different.

Who is an employee or a contractor?

There are guidelines to help employers decide if their staff are employees or self-employed. In both cases, employers must register with Inland Revenue, but tax deductions are different.

How to register as an employer

You can register as an employer online or by completing a form. You will need an IRD number.

Overview of responsibilities

As an employer, you have tax responsibilities relating to your staff. This includes ensuring new employees complete a tax code declaration, making correct salary deductions and filing employer returns.

Business Tax Update

Business Tax Update provides tax updates on PAYE, GST and FBT and other relevant tax issues - so you can get all your business tax news in one place. The first issue is September 2009 and combines and replaces Payroll News and GST News. You can subscribe to receive an email notification when each issue is published.

Date published: 09 Feb 2007

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