Moving KiwiSaver to Australian super, and super back to KiwiSaver

What the scheme does

The Trans-Tasman Retirement Savings Portability scheme lets you move your retirement savings from one country to the other when you move there yourself. It works in both directions: KiwiSaver to an Australian super fund, and Australian super to a KiwiSaver scheme.

It is voluntary at every point. You do not have to transfer, and funds and KiwiSaver providers do not have to take part. Inland Revenue says plainly that a New Zealander moving to Australia can leave the KiwiSaver account where it is. What you cannot do, once you have moved to Australia, is take the KiwiSaver balance out as cash. That option, open one year after emigrating to any other country, is closed for Australia, so the choice is to transfer or to wait.

Moving KiwiSaver to Australia

You need to have moved to Australia permanently or indefinitely, and you need an Australian tax file number. Your KiwiSaver provider can take you through the process.

The receiving fund is the first thing to check. KiwiSaver money can only go to, and stay in, a complying super fund regulated by APRA that has chosen to take part. It cannot go into a self-managed super fund. If you run an SMSF and want everything in one place, this is the point where that plan stops: the KiwiSaver money has to sit in a participating APRA-regulated fund instead. Not every APRA fund does, so ask yours before you start.

It is all or nothing. The ATO says the whole KiwiSaver balance must move, and partial transfers are not allowed. Any member tax credits you built up go with it, which is one advantage over cashing out after a move to another country, where the government contributions stay behind.

Your Australian fund will not accept the money until the KiwiSaver provider tells it which parts are New Zealand-sourced and which are Australian-sourced, the tax-free component of any Australian-sourced amount, and how much has already been counted against the Australian cap. If those details are missing, the transfer waits until they arrive.

Where the contributions cap comes in

The transfer is not taxed on arrival. The New Zealand-sourced part is treated as a non-concessional (after-tax) contribution, though, and counts towards the non-concessional contributions cap in the year your fund receives it.

For 2026–27 that cap is $130,000. If you are under 75 and your total super balance was under $1.84 million on 30 June 2026, you can bring forward the next two years and contribute up to $390,000 in one go. Between $1.84 million and $1.97 million the bring-forward limit is $260,000; from $1.97 million up to $2.1 million there is no bring-forward and the $130,000 annual cap applies; at $2.1 million or more the cap is nil. The figures are on our tax and super facts page and the ATO's non-concessional contributions cap page.

Every other after-tax contribution you make that year counts too, in any fund. Go over and the ATO issues an excess determination; you then either release the excess plus 85% of the associated earnings from super or leave it in and pay tax on it at the top marginal rate plus Medicare levy.

A few side effects are easy to miss. The transferred amount cannot be claimed as a personal super deduction, it does not count towards the government co-contribution, and it does not support a spouse contribution tax offset.

When you can get at the money

Once in your Australian fund, the savings are held in two parts. The Australian-sourced part follows Australian rules: generally you need to be 60 or over and meet the Australian definition of retirement. The New Zealand-sourced part follows New Zealand's rules, so it stays locked until the New Zealand retirement age, currently 65.

The gap matters if you plan to stop work before 65. Someone who retires at 60 can draw on their Australian super but not on the money that came from KiwiSaver. Inland Revenue's commentary on the 2010 law also notes that New Zealand-sourced savings held in Australia cannot be moved on to a third country.

Moving Australian super to KiwiSaver

Going the other way, your savings must be in an APRA-regulated complying fund, you must have permanently emigrated to New Zealand, and you sign a statutory declaration to that effect and give proof of a New Zealand address. You need an IRD number. As with the other direction, the whole balance moves, but there is no limit on its size and New Zealand does not tax it on arrival.

Once in KiwiSaver, the Australian-sourced money keeps Australian rules. You generally need to be 60 and retired to take it, it cannot be moved to a third country, and it cannot be used to buy a first home.

If you worked in Australia, received super and the ATO is now holding some of it as unclaimed money, you can ask for it to be sent to a KiwiSaver scheme, provided you are a New Zealand citizen or have permanently emigrated to New Zealand. It can be paid straight to a New Zealand financial institution instead if you are 65 or older or the amount is under $200, in which case Australian tax may apply.

First-home withdrawals

Inland Revenue's first-home withdrawal page says funds transferred from an Australian complying super scheme cannot be withdrawn, and you must leave $1,000 in the account in any case. Its commentary on the 2010 law draws a line between the transferred amount and the earnings on it after it arrives, which it says can be withdrawn for a first home. Ask your provider how it splits the two in your account before you plan a deposit around the number on your statement.

In an Australian fund, the New Zealand-sourced part is locked until 65, so it cannot go towards a deposit here either.

If you move back

You can transfer savings back to the original country. Coming back to Australia, you give your new Australian fund a statement showing how much of the money was already counted against the Australian non-concessional cap, and the tax-free and taxable components of the Australian-sourced part. In the ATO's own example, that is the statement the original Australian fund issued when the super left for New Zealand. Without it, the ATO says the whole balance counts against the cap again and the Australian components all become taxable. Keep the statements from the first transfer. Years later they are hard to reconstruct.

Before you sign the forms

This page is general information. Whether to transfer, and when, depends on your age, your balances, when you expect to stop work and whether you might go home. If you would like us to look at your own position, get in touch. Our trans-Tasman tax service covers residency and income on both sides as well.