Ngā utu tuhene i te pūtea taurewa ākonga Student loan overpayments

You can sometimes pay more than you need to on your student loan. This can happen if:

• too much is deducted from your salary or wages (by mistake or by using the wrong tax code)
• you have a deduction exemption but your employer accidentally makes deductions anyway. When this happens we call it a significant over-deduction.

Use our 'PAYE deductions from salary or wages calculator' to check if you’ve had the right amount deducted from your income.

If your deductions are more than they should be, talk to your employer. Check you are using the right tax code. If you need to change your tax code, give your employer a new Tax code declaration - IR330. Make sure you include the 'SL'.

Tax codes for individuals

You could get a refund of significant over-deductions

The threshold for significant over-deductions is $60 a month. If you pay $60 or more to your student loan than you should have in a month due to over-deductions, you may be able to get the amount refunded. This is unless you used the wrong tax code causing the over-deduction. If your employer deducts the right amount according to your tax code, it's considered a 'full and final deduction' even if it's too high for your overall income.

Send us a message in myIR, or call us, and we'll check:

• if your over-deduction is significant
• you have no overdue amounts owing (arrears).

If we confirm you have a significant over-deduction and it can be refunded, you'll have 6 months to ask us to do any of the following.

• Refund you the amount.
• Leave it on your student loan (to help pay it off faster).
• Pay a student loan or other bill that is not due yet.
• Transfer the amount to your KiwiSaver.