The three ACC levies, in plain English
Every self-employed Kiwi pays ACC. It is not optional and it is not a tax you can dodge. What trips people up is that the bill is made of three separate parts, and only one of them depends on your job.
The Earners' levy covers injuries that happen away from work. Falling off your own ladder at home, a rugby knock, a car crash on a Sunday. Everyone who earns pays it at the same flat rate: $1.52 per $100 of liable income for the 2026/27 year. On $70,000 that is $1,064.
The Working Safer levy funds WorkSafe New Zealand. It is tiny and flat: $0.08 per $100, so $56 on $70,000. You will barely notice it, but it is on the invoice.
The Work levy is the one that moves. It covers injuries on the job, and the rate depends on how risky ACC thinks your trade is. A builder on a roof pays more than a bookkeeper at a desk. That is why the dropdown above changes your total. Roofers and bricklayers sit near the top. Electricians sit surprisingly low. Painters and plumbers land in the middle.
Why the bill turns up as a nasty surprise
ACC does not bill you as you earn. It bills you in arrears. Here is the sequence that catches first-year sole traders every time.
You finish your first year of trading. You file your tax return. IRD passes your income across to ACC. A few months later, an ACC invoice lands for the year you just finished. If you did well, it can be four figures, and it arrives with no warning while you are already spending this year's money.
The fix is boring and it works: treat ACC like GST. Put a slice of every invoice aside from day one. Use the calculator above to get your yearly number, divide by 52, and park that much a week in a separate account. When the bill comes, it is already sitting there.
CoverPlus versus CoverPlus Extra
By default you are on CoverPlus. If an injury stops you working, ACC pays 80% of your earnings from your last filed year. Simple, automatic, and fine for most people. The catch: if last year was quiet, your payout is based on that quiet year, even if you are flat out now.
CoverPlus Extra lets you agree a fixed weekly payment up front, between $40,401 and $125,313 of cover for the 2026/27 year. You choose the number, ACC prices the levy on it, and that is what you get if you are injured, no questions about last year's income. Worth a look if your income swings, if you have just started, or if you want certainty. Talk to ACC or your accountant before switching.
Minimum and maximum liable income
ACC does not charge levies on every dollar without limit. There is a maximum: for 2026/27 your Work and Earners' levies are only charged on liable earnings up to $125,313. Earn more than that and the extra is levy-free, which is why the calculator caps there. There is also a minimum full-time liable earnings figure that ACC applies if you work more than 30 hours a week but declare very little. If you are near either edge, check the figure on your own ACC invoice rather than trusting a round number.
A note on the numbers here
The Work levy rates in the dropdown are the standard CoverPlus self-employed rates from ACC's published classification table for 2026/27. They are accurate for the classifications listed, but ACC has hundreds of classification units and your exact one is set by the BIC code on your tax return. If your trade is not in the list, or your invoice shows a different rate, your invoice wins. This tool gets you close, fast, so the bill is never a shock.