KiwiSaver, FIF rules and your UK pensions

Joining KiwiSaver takes ten minutes. Working out what New Zealand's taxman makes of your UK pensions and investments can take a lot longer.

The short version

KiwiSaver is New Zealand's voluntary workplace savings scheme. You can join once you're a citizen or entitled to live in New Zealand indefinitely and normally live here. Temporary work visa holders can't [2].
The default rate went up to 3.5% from you and 3.5% from your employer on 1 April 2026, and is due to rise to 4% each on 1 April 2028 [1].
UK pensions you leave in the UK are generally fine where they are. Regular pension income is usually taxed in New Zealand once you live here [3].
Lump sums and transfers out of a UK pension are tax-free in New Zealand only during a four-year window after you arrive. After that, part of the money is taxed [3].
UK shares, funds and ISAs can fall under the foreign investment fund (FIF) rules. A bill introduced on 10 September 2026 proposes raising the threshold from NZ$50,000 to NZ$100,000 [5].
Moving a UK pension to New Zealand needs regulated financial advice. We never recommend a transfer [4][6].

Pound conversions in this guide use the Bank of England spot rate of 5 November 2026 (£1 = NZD 2.4016), rounded.

How KiwiSaver works for new arrivals

Think of KiwiSaver as auto-enrolment with a Kiwi accent. Your employer may enrol you automatically when you start a new job, if you're eligible, and you can opt out if you'd rather not [2]. The catch for many Brits is eligibility. You need to be "a New Zealand citizen, or entitled to live in New Zealand indefinitely", and to live or normally live here. People on temporary work, visitor or student visas can't join [2]. So if you arrive on an Accredited Employer Work Visa, KiwiSaver usually waits until you get residence.

Budget 2025 changed the numbers [1]:

	Before	From 1 April 2026	From 1 April 2028
Default employee rate	3%	3.5%	4%
Employer minimum (matching)	3%	3.5%	4%
Government contribution	50c per $1	25c per $1 (from 1 July 2025)	25c per $1

A few things worth knowing:

The government contribution is 25 cents for every dollar you put in, up to NZ$260.72 a year (about £109). If your taxable income is over NZ$180,000 (about £75,000), you get nothing [1].
You can drop back to 3% for 3 to 12 months at a time from 1 April 2026, and reapply as often as you like. Your employer can choose whether to match the lower rate [1].
Choice of rates. Employees can contribute 3.5%, 4%, 6%, 8% or 10% of pay [1].
Access. You can generally take your savings out at 65. There are limited ways to get some or all of it early, including help with buying your first home [2].

Unlike a UK workplace pension, KiwiSaver contributions come out of taxed pay, and there's no tax relief on the way in. The fund's investment returns are taxed as you go. It's a different design from back home in Blighty, not a worse one, but it does mean UK pension maths doesn't translate neatly.

What happens to your UK pensions

For most people, the simplest answer is that nothing happens. Your UK workplace pensions, personal pensions and SIPPs can stay in the UK, keep growing and pay you later in New Zealand. Our guide to UK workplace and private pensions abroad covers the UK side in detail.

How New Zealand taxes them depends on how you take the money:

Regular pension or annuity payments are generally taxable in New Zealand. The UK–New Zealand double taxation agreement usually gives New Zealand the right to tax them, and you declare them in your tax return [3]. Your UK provider may need an NT code from HMRC to stop taking UK tax.
Lump sums and transfers of "foreign superannuation" have their own rules (below).

The UK State Pension is a separate story, and a sore one, because it's frozen in New Zealand. See our guide to the frozen UK State Pension in New Zealand.

Lump sums, transfers and the four-year window

Inland Revenue treats UK pensions as foreign superannuation. Here's how a lump sum or transfer is taxed [3]:

The four-year exemption. Lump sums and transfers made within four years of becoming resident are exempt. The clock starts on the earlier of the day you set up a permanent place of abode in New Zealand, or the first day of the 183 days you spend here in any 12-month period. It ends four years after the end of that month.
After that, the schedule method is the default. You pay tax on a percentage of the lump sum, and the percentage grows the longer you've been resident. Inland Revenue has a calculator for it.
Or the formula method, which taxes the actual gains in your pension. Inland Revenue itself calls it complex and suggests professional advice.
Scheme pays. If you transfer into a New Zealand scheme that offers it, the scheme can pay the 28% tax on the taxable amount out of the transferred money.

The four-year window is the bit that tempts people. It's real, but it's not a reason on its own to move a pension. The UK rules, the scheme you'd move it to and what you'd lose (guarantees, UK protections, the UK tax-free lump sum) all matter more.

The UK side of a transfer, and the warnings

If you do look at moving a UK pension to New Zealand, HMRC's rules apply first [4]:

The receiving scheme must be a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme (QROPS). If it isn't, the transfer can be taxed at 40% or more. It's your job to check, and not every New Zealand scheme, KiwiSaver ones included, is on HMRC's list.
The overseas transfer charge of 25% can apply. You're generally exempt if you live in the same country as the QROPS and stay within your overseas transfer allowance, usually £1,073,100. Move away within five years and the charge can come back [4].
You fill in form APSS 263 for your UK scheme. Leave out information for more than 60 days and you can be taxed at 25% [4].

Pension scammers love people who've just moved abroad. MoneyHelper's warning signs include cold calls, pressure to decide quickly, promises of tax loopholes and "free pension reviews". Cold calling about pensions has been banned in the UK since January 2019 [6]. Check any firm on the FCA register and warning list before you speak to it.

Transfers of defined benefit (final salary) pensions worth more than £30,000 need regulated advice from a UK adviser by law. For everything else, regulated advice is still the sensible route. We don't recommend transfers, and neither should anyone who isn't regulated and accountable to you.

The FIF rules: UK shares, funds and ISAs

This is the bit that catches out more Brits than pensions do. New Zealand doesn't recognise an ISA as a tax wrapper. To the taxman here, your Stocks and Shares ISA is just a pile of UK funds and shares, and those can be foreign investment funds.

Who the rules hit

Individuals whose foreign shares and funds cost less than NZ$50,000 (about £20,800) in total are generally outside the FIF rules and are taxed on dividends instead. Go over it and you usually work out FIF income each year, often with the fair dividend rate (FDR) method, which taxes a deemed 5% of the opening market value, whether or not the investments made money [5][7]. The comparative value method, which taxes actual gains and losses, is the other common option.

Two things soften it for new arrivals:

Transitional residents. If you haven't been a New Zealand tax resident in the previous ten years, most foreign investment income is generally exempt for your first four years. Wages from work done in New Zealand are always taxed.
The revenue account method. Since 1 April 2025, eligible migrants who became resident on or after 1 April 2024, after at least five years away, can be taxed only on dividends and part of realised gains [8]. It's narrow: it mainly covers unlisted shares bought before you arrived, and shares where another country also taxes you on sale because of your citizenship. Most Brits with UK index funds won't fit it.

What's proposed

The Taxation (Annual Rates for 2026–27, FBT Simplification, Foreign Investment Funds, and Remedial Measures) Bill, introduced on 10 September 2026, would raise the FIF threshold to NZ$100,000 (about £41,600) and open the revenue account method to all eligible individual residents, mostly from 1 April 2026 [5]. When we checked, it was still a bill, not law. Plan on today's rules and keep an eye on it.

UK holding	Usual New Zealand treatment
UK workplace or personal pension	Foreign superannuation: pension income taxed, lump sums under the four-year rule [3]
Stocks and Shares ISA	Underlying funds and shares can be FIFs
UK funds and shares outside an ISA	FIFs if over the threshold
Cash ISA or UK savings	Interest taxable in New Zealand

A tax adviser who knows both countries can check your situation, especially in the year you sell anything big.

A sensible order of play

Get your IRD number and give your employer your tax code (see our guide to your IRD number and first month).
Join KiwiSaver when you're eligible, and pick a fund type you're happy with.
List your UK pensions, ISAs and investments with their cost and current value. Note the date you arrived.
Check if you count as a transitional resident and when your four-year windows end.
Get UK regulated advice before any pension transfer. If anyone cold calls about one, hang up.

Brits in Auckland compare notes on all of this in our community group for Brits in New Zealand, but nobody there can give you advice for your own case.

KiwiSaver, the FIF rules and your UK pensions: a guide for Brits in Auckland