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Upcoming ACC levy changes for business from 1 April 2026

Important ACC Levy changes from 1 April 2026

1. No Claims Discount is ending

The No Claims Discount is being removed as it hasn’t delivered the expected health and safety improvements and has been subsidised by other businesses.

What’s changing:

  • Levy invoices will no longer include a 10% discount or a 10% loading based on claims history.
  • Employers will see this change in the provisional invoice they receive in 2026.
  • Self?employed people will see this change in the invoice they receive in 2027, unless they cease being self?employed earlier.

2. Experience Rating becomes self-funding

Experience Rating will become self-funding, meaning businesses outside the programme will no longer contribute to the discounts in it.

What’s changing:

  • All businesses in the programme will pay an additional Experience Rating (ER) Programme rate, currently 7.2%, on top of their Work Account levy.
  • This will appear as a single Work Levy (ER) rate and is separate to any Experience Rating loading or discount for a businesses’ claims performance.
  • Employers will see this change in the provisional invoice they receive in 2026.
  • Our levy calculator has been updated to include the ER programme rate for impacted customers.

3. Interest on new instalment plans

Interest will apply to all new or rolled-over levy instalment plans, including three- and six-month plans that were previously interest free. This change is intended to improve fairness for businesses who pay their levy invoice in full and on time.

What this means:

  • Each instalment will include interest, calculated using a formula that reflects wider economic interest rates.
  • Instalment plans set up before 1 April 2026 will keep their existing interest rate until the plan ends. For plans of three- or six-months, this is 0%.
  • All instalment plans will use the same annualised interest rate.

Longer instalment plans will incur more interest overall.

4. Late payment interest (formerly late fees or penalties)

Late payment interest applies when levies or instalments become overdue. Changes are being made to how the rate is set, and how interest is applied.

What’s changing:

  • The late payment interest rate will be set using a formula connected to the instalment interest rate, with an additional margin to discourage late payments.
  • Late payment interest will be calculated daily and compounded monthly.

To avoid higher interest charges from late payments, businesses should arrange payment before their invoice becomes overdue.

Checking the new interest rates

From 1 April 2026, instalment interest and late payment interest will be calculated using a standard formula. This formula is based on the Reserve Bank of New Zealand’s most recently published monthly floating first mortgage rate for new customers.

Source:  acc.co.nz (external link)