Transferring Australian super to KiwiSaver

If you worked in Australia and left super sitting there, you can bring it home. The trans-Tasman portability arrangement has run since 2013 and it works. What catches people out is that the Australian money does not simply become KiwiSaver money: three Australian rules follow it across the Tasman and stay attached to it permanently.

Who can transfer

You need to have permanently emigrated to New Zealand. Transfers only run between an Australian complying superannuation fund regulated by APRA and a KiwiSaver scheme – nothing else on either side qualifies. Australian savings cannot be moved into any other New Zealand retirement fund, only KiwiSaver.

Participation is voluntary for both you and the schemes involved. Your Australian fund does not have to release the money to New Zealand, and your KiwiSaver provider does not have to accept it. Check both before you start, because a provider that does not accept trans-Tasman transfers will not make an exception, and finding out at the end of a six-week process is a waste of everybody’s time.

The tax treatment

An amount of Australian-sourced retirement savings transferred into a KiwiSaver scheme is exempt from tax at the point of entry. You are not taxed for bringing it home, and there is no exit tax on the Australian side.

This is worth stating plainly because the alternative is not. Money pulled out of Australian super and moved across as cash rather than as a formal transfer is a very different transaction with a very different tax outcome. If someone suggests withdrawing it and sending it over yourself, get advice first.

The three restrictions that follow the money

Once your Australian savings are inside your KiwiSaver account, they remain subject to Australian rules. Your provider tracks them as a separate Australian-sourced component, and:

1. You cannot access them until 60. Not 65, and not simply on turning 60 either – you must also satisfy the Australian definition of retirement at that age. Your New Zealand-sourced KiwiSaver is available at 65, so an account with both will have two different unlock dates.

2. You cannot use them to buy a first home. New Zealand allows a first-home withdrawal from KiwiSaver, but Australian-sourced savings are carved out of it entirely. If a first home is the plan, transferring Australian super into the account does not increase what you can withdraw for it by a dollar.

3. You cannot move them on to a third country. Australian-sourced savings can sit in New Zealand or go back to Australia. If you later move to the UK, Canada or anywhere else, they cannot follow you.

So is it worth doing?

Often, yes. One account instead of two is easier to manage, easier to keep track of after a change of address, and much easier for whoever administers your estate. You stop paying a second set of fees and you stop losing value to exchange rate uncertainty in an account you are not watching. Australia also has a mechanism for transferring ATO-held lost super, so an old account you have forgotten about is not necessarily out of reach.

But it is not automatically right. If you might return to Australia, if a first home is close, or if your Australian fund carries insurance cover you would lose on transfer, the answer can easily be no. That last one catches people: Australian super accounts frequently include life and total-and-permanent-disability cover that stops the moment the account closes, and replacing it in your forties costs real money.

How to start

1. Find your Australian super. The ATO’s online services, through myGov, will list accounts in your name including any lost or ATO-held super.
2. Check that your Australian fund is APRA-regulated and complying, and will release to New Zealand. Self-managed super funds cannot participate.
3. Check your KiwiSaver provider accepts trans-Tasman transfers, and ask how they will record the Australian-sourced component.
4. Ask what insurance you would lose on the Australian side before you close anything.
5. Complete your KiwiSaver provider’s transfer form. Your provider handles the request with the Australian fund; you do not have to run it yourself.

Expect it to take a few weeks rather than days.

We can walk through whether transferring is right in your situation, and it costs you nothing – we are paid by the providers we work with, not by you. What we will not do is advise on the Australian side of the fence: for that, and for anything involving Australian tax residency, you want an Australian adviser.