Best Start Payment Calculator NZ
This Best Start payment calculator estimates the weekly and annual Best Start tax credit you can receive for a young child in New Zealand. Best Start is part of the Working for Families package and helps with the cost of a new baby through the first three years. In the first year the payment is universal, paid at about $77.71 a week ($4,041 per year) to every eligible family regardless of income. In the second and third years the payment becomes income tested, so the same base amount is reduced, or abated, by 27.5 cents for every dollar of family income above the threshold of $44,900. To use the calculator, choose whether your child is in year one or in years two to three, enter your annual family income, and read off the weekly and annual payment after any abatement. New parents, sole parents and budgeting advisers use it to plan household cash flow around a new arrival and to see how returning to work might change the payment in later years. A few tips make the estimate more reliable. Use your expected family income for the full year rather than a single payslip, count both partners income and any taxable income such as self employed profit, and keep your details with Inland Revenue current so you are paid the right amount and avoid a year end square up. Remember that the year one payment is not affected by income at all, so a higher earning household still receives the full weekly amount for a newborn. Treat the result as a clear planning guide and confirm the exact figures and eligibility with Inland Revenue.
Year 1 is universal. Years 2 to 3 abate at 27.5% on family income above $44,900. Estimate only, not financial or tax advice.
How it works
The annual base is the weekly rate times 52. In year one that full amount is paid. In years two and three the base is reduced by 27.5 cents for every dollar of family income above $44,900, with the result floored at zero, then divided by 52 for the weekly figure.
Worked example
With a $77.71 weekly base the annual base is $4,041. In years two to three at $90,000 income the excess over $44,900 is $45,100, abated at 27.5 percent for $12,402.50. That exceeds the base, so the payment floors to $0 a year ($0.00 a week).
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