Krystal: more than one job

Krystal is a first-year university student. She gets a student allowance but is flatting away from home so has a part-time job to supplement her income. Krystal's studies were paid for by a student loan.

Krystal needs another part-time job to earn more money to help pay the bills.  She was told by friends that if she gets another job she'll have to pay more tax and her income will be reduced. Krystal isn't sure if this is true, so through What's Tax? she links to the PAYE calculator on the main Inland Revenue website to work out how much tax she'll pay if she gets a second job. 

Krystal wants to earn at least $12 an hour before tax and to work about 10 hours a week, so she enters $120 into the first box in the calculator and confirms that she'll be paid weekly.

Then Krystal is asked for her tax code. She can't find a copy of the Tax code declaration (IR330) form that she filled out for her current part-time job, so Krystal goes to the page Tax codes under Everything you need to know on What's Tax? and downloads a copy of the IR330. This helps her through the process of finding her tax code. Krystal's tax code is "S" because even if she takes a second job, she'll still earn less than the minimum amount before having to start paying back her student loan. 

Krystal goes back to the PAYE calculator, completes the calculation and finds out how much she'd earn after tax in a job paying $12 an hour. The result is more than her present income.

The other thing that Krystal needs to consider is whether to start saving for her retirement through KiwiSaver. As she's now 18 she'll be automatically enrolled in KiwiSaver the next time she starts a job. Krystal will then have 8 weeks to decide whether to remain in KiwiSaver or opt out. Krystal decides not to join KiwiSaver until she starts fulltime permanent work.

Krystal soon finds another job and starts work.