IRD Tax Refunds in New Zealand
Updated for the 2025/26 end-of-year assessments
Where a refund actually comes from
A tax refund is not a bonus. It is the difference between the tax that was taken out of your income during the year and the tax you actually owed. PAYE, resident withholding tax on interest, and the prescribed investor rate on your KiwiSaver or other portfolio investment entity income are all estimates applied through the year. The year-end assessment compares the two and produces either a refund or a bill.
For most salary and wage earners the assessment is automatic. Inland Revenue collects income information from employers, banks and investment providers, then either issues a refund or a bill without you filing anything. You generally only need to file an IR3 if you have income that was not reported — self-employment, rental income, overseas income, or a lump sum — or if Inland Revenue asks you to.
When assessments and refunds happen
The tax year ends on 31 March. Assessments are usually done from the end of May onwards, and Inland Revenue's guidance is that you can expect to hear from them between the last weekend in May and the end of July.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| 31 March | Tax year ends |
| From late May | Automatic assessments begin |
| By end of July | Most people have heard their result |
| 7 July | IR3 returns due for the year ended 31 March (later with a tax agent extension of time) |
| 7 February | Due date to pay any tax bill from that assessment (7 April for tax agent clients) |
Refunds and bills are not issued on one national date. They are processed in batches as the data comes in, which is why your neighbour can have theirs in June and you can still be waiting in July with nothing wrong.
How long the money takes
Two different clocks matter here. Inland Revenue publishes current processing times on its website, and the figure listed there for an income tax refund is 10 weeks. That is the outer bound they will quote you for a refund query; most refunds produced by an automatic assessment are issued shortly after the assessment itself is completed rather than sitting for the full period.
Once Inland Revenue has processed the refund, it is paid into the bank account on file. Each bank then takes its own time to post the payment to your account — usually a few days. So a "where is my refund" question has two possible answers: still being processed, or already paid and in the bank's system.
Compare that with other published timeframes to get a sense of the shape of things: a GST refund is listed at 15 working days, an IRD number application at 10 working days, and a Working for Families application at 10 working days. Income tax refunds sit in a slower lane than the GST and Working for Families workflows.
Getting your refund faster
Almost everything that delays a refund is a detail you control:
- Bank account details. Inland Revenue pays the refund into the account on file. If there is no account, or the account is closed, they will contact you, and the refund goes nowhere until you respond.
- Email and postal address. Inland Revenue's own wording is that keeping your details up to date means you will get your income tax information faster, and any refund owing will be paid straight away.
- What was available for the PIR field. If your prescribed investor rate was too low for the year, the assessment produces a bill rather than a refund.
Checking all three in myIR takes a couple of minutes and is the single most useful thing to do while you are waiting.
What happens if the payment bounces
If there is a problem with the payment or with the account, the money bounces back to Inland Revenue. Where they have an updated account for you, they will try that one. If not, they will let you know that they need an account. This is worth knowing because a bounced refund is not lost — but it does stop being automatic until you update the detail.
Refunds used to pay other debts
A refund is not always paid out in cash:
- Tax debt. Some or all of your refund may be used to pay any debt you have with Inland Revenue. They will let you know in a separate letter if this happens.
- Working for Families. If you or your partner have an income tax or Working for Families refund due, and there is a bill to pay in either, part or all of the refund is used to pay the bill.
The two main reasons a Working for Families bill appears are an under-estimated family income, or a change of circumstances — children leaving care, or a separation — that was not reported straight away. Because Working for Families payments are based on the income you estimate, and corrected at year end, an overpayment shows up in exactly this way.
Why you might get a bill instead
| Reason | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Income changed during the year | PAYE was applied on an assumption that no longer held |
| Wrong tax code used | Common with second jobs and with jobs that overlap |
| Incorrect resident withholding tax rate on interest | Too low a rate on investment income |
| PIR too low for KiwiSaver or other PIE income | The fund's returns were taxed at less than they should have been |
| Tax rate or PIR changed partway through the year | Only part of the year was taxed at the right rate |
| Employer share scheme income with no tax deducted | The value was never taxed at source |
| Independent earner tax credit claimed above the threshold | The credit was applied through the year but was not fully due |
| Schedular payment tax rate too low | Contracting income was under-withheld |
If you are not sure why you have a bill, the right move is to send a message in myIR rather than guess. And note what a bill sets off: once your tax to pay is over $5,000, provisional tax begins, so a single bad year can change your obligations for the next one.
If you disagree with the assessment
- Check the income summary behind the assessment in myIR — the numbers come from employers, banks and investment providers, and an employer error is the most common cause of a strange result.
- If a figure is wrong, ask the provider of the information to correct it, then let Inland Revenue know.
- Remember the time limit: Inland Revenue can generally only amend assessments for a limited number of past tax years, so a query raised quickly is much easier to fix than one raised four years later.
- If tax is genuinely due, instalment arrangements are available — see the penalties and interest guide for why silence is the most expensive option.
Refund scams
Tax refunds are one of the most common hooks for phishing in New Zealand. The pattern is an email or text claiming you are owed a refund and asking you to click a link and enter bank or login details. Inland Revenue does not ask you to log in through an emailed link to claim a refund — go to myIR directly by typing the address, and check whether any refund exists in your own account. If you are ever unsure, contact Inland Revenue through a number you have looked up yourself.
Checklist while you wait
- Log in to myIR and confirm your bank account, email and postal address are current.
- Check the income summary behind the assessment for anything that looks wrong.
- Check your prescribed investor rate for the year that has just been assessed — and for the current year.
- If you have a bill, note the 7 February due date and either pay it or arrange instalments before then.
- If your tax to pay was over $5,000, read up on provisional tax before the first instalment date.