Can KiwiSaver be paid into an Australian bank account?

No. If you have moved from New Zealand to Australia and want your KiwiSaver savings to follow you, they can, but not into your bank account. The trans-Tasman retirement savings portability arrangement allows the money to be received by one kind of Australian institution only: a complying superannuation fund regulated by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). It cannot be withdrawn in cash on emigration to Australia, it cannot go to a self-managed fund, and it has to move in one piece.

Key Takeaways

• The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) states that money transferred from a KiwiSaver scheme can only be transferred to, and held in, a complying super fund regulated by APRA, and cannot be transferred to a self-managed super fund.
• Inland Revenue states that a KiwiSaver member will not be able to withdraw any retirement savings in cash upon permanent emigration to Australia, which is different from emigration anywhere else.
• The transfer must be the whole balance of the account; partial transfers are not allowed.
• The transfer is not taxed, but the New Zealand-sourced amount is treated as a non-concessional contribution and counted against the cap.
• Once in Australia the money is held in two parts, and the New Zealand-sourced part is accessible only at the New Zealand age of retirement, currently 65.

Why this money is different from every other transfer across the Tasman

Wages, a house sale, a gift from family: money of that kind leaves a New Zealand account and arrives in an Australian one by the ordinary route described in how international transfers work. KiwiSaver savings are locked retirement money in New Zealand, and Australian law keeps them locked once they cross.

The Australian Taxation Office describes the scheme as one that allows you to transfer your retirement savings between Australia and New Zealand when you move from one country to the other. Participation is voluntary on both sides, for the member and for the fund, and only complying super funds regulated by APRA and New Zealand KiwiSaver scheme providers can take part. The ATO's page says to check with your Australian super fund or New Zealand KiwiSaver scheme provider to confirm they are participating, and to check with both to see if they will charge any fees for transferring or accepting funds on your behalf.

The condition on the member is permanence. The ATO frames it as moving permanently or indefinitely to Australia. Inland Revenue's account of the 2010 legislation says members can request the transfer at any time after they supply their provider with proof of their permanent emigration to Australia, on the same standard the KiwiSaver Act 2006 already sets out for emigration elsewhere.

The account that can receive it, and the accounts that cannot

Inland Revenue's own summary of the arrangement is blunt: a KiwiSaver member will not be able to withdraw any retirement savings in cash upon permanent emigration to Australia, as can be done one year after the person emigrates to a country other than Australia. The portability arrangements, it states, will be the only way for KiwiSaver members to take their accumulated savings with them when they permanently emigrate to Australia. Inland Revenue adds that this reflects the policy intent of KiwiSaver, which is to encourage a long-term savings habit and asset accumulation.

That is the receive-side fact for this corridor. On Inland Revenue's account, a member who moves to Canada can, after a year, have their savings paid out in cash. A member who moves to Australia cannot.

On the Australian side the ATO narrows the destination further, to a complying super fund regulated by APRA and never a self-managed super fund (SMSF). Inland Revenue's 2013 fact sheet on the arrangement says the same thing from the other side: KiwiSaver funds can only be transferred to Australian complying schemes regulated by APRA, which means you cannot transfer your savings to an Australian self-managed superannuation fund.

You will need an Australian tax file number before the fund can take the money.

What the Australian fund asks for before it will accept the money

The receiving fund is not simply crediting a deposit. The ATO lists what it may want from the KiwiSaver provider first:

• details of any Australian-sourced or New Zealand-sourced amounts that form part of the transfer
• the tax-free component of an Australian-sourced amount
• any amount not previously counted towards the non-concessional contributions cap
• any restricted non-preserved or unrestricted non-preserved amounts

The ATO's wording is that the Australian super fund will only accept the transferred amount when they have this information.

The reason it needs that breakdown is in the next condition. Transfers from a New Zealand KiwiSaver scheme to a complying Australian super fund must be the whole balance of the account; partial transfers are not allowed. And New Zealand-sourced retirement savings transferred to Australia are treated as non-concessional contributions and are subject to the non-concessional contributions cap. The ATO states that contributions over this cap may result in you receiving a determination of excess non-concessional contributions, and that you may be required to release an amount from your super fund or pay extra tax. It adds that your total superannuation balance also impacts how much you can contribute.

That is a genuine trap for a large balance. The money must all come at once, and the New Zealand-sourced part of it counts toward a cap that was designed for voluntary after-tax contributions. Whether a given balance clears the cap in a given year is a question for the fund and the ATO's current figures, which the ATO page links to. It is not a question the transfer rules answer.

How the money is treated once it is in Australia

The ATO states that a transfer from a New Zealand KiwiSaver scheme to a participating Australian super fund is not taxed, and that withdrawals from your Australian super account are tax-free once you meet a condition of release. Inland Revenue puts the same principle from the other side: transfers between the two systems are exempt from entry or exit taxes so that moving retirement savings across the Tasman does not lead to an unnecessary loss in value.

What the transferred savings are not is set out just as plainly. They are not deductible as a personal contribution, not eligible personal contributions for the super co-contribution, and not eligible for a spouse contribution tax offset.

Then there is the lock. The ATO states that retirement savings you transfer to Australia from New Zealand are held in your super fund in two parts, the New Zealand-sourced component and the Australian-sourced component. To access the New Zealand-sourced component you will need to reach the New Zealand age of retirement, currently 65. To access the Australian-sourced component, in the ATO's words, generally you will need to be 60 or older and satisfy the Australian definition of retirement.

Inland Revenue adds one more restriction from the Australian side of the arrangement. Any New Zealand-sourced retirement savings that are transferred to Australia will not be able to be transferred from Australia to a third country.

So the money keeps its origin. It sits in an Australian fund, but the part that was earned in New Zealand is released on New Zealand's timetable and cannot leave for anywhere but New Zealand.

The alternative is to leave it where it is

Nothing forces the transfer. Inland Revenue notes that the transfer is optional and members can choose to leave their funds in KiwiSaver, with one consequence: members residing in Australia will not be eligible to accumulate member tax credits, because, in Inland Revenue's words, to be eligible for member tax credits members must reside mainly in New Zealand in the year for which the tax credit applies. The balance stays invested in New Zealand and is withdrawn under KiwiSaver's own rules.

The ATO also covers the return journey. If you move back to New Zealand, the Australian savings can go across to a KiwiSaver scheme. If you later come back to Australia you will need a statement showing which components were previously counted toward the non-concessional contributions cap, so that they are not counted twice. Without it, the ATO states, all your savings will be counted towards the cap and you may have to pay excess contributions tax.

For the Australian-dollar value of a New Zealand balance on a given day, the NZD to AUD rate page shows the pair at the mid-market rate.

Where to look next

• Receiving money from New Zealand - the live rate page for this corridor, for money that does travel by the ordinary route.
• Sending money to New Zealand from Australia - the opposite direction, and the two registration regimes a provider sits under.
• Two economies that integrated everything except the money - the wider story of trans-Tasman integration, of which retirement savings portability is one chapter.
• How international transfers work - the sequence an ordinary payment moves through before any national rule reaches it.
• AUD to NZD - the convert page for the pair on its own.

Sources

• Trans-Tasman retirement savings transfers, Australian Taxation Office, QC 35380, last updated 3 June 2024 - participation limited to complying APRA-regulated funds and KiwiSaver providers, the check with both funds on participation and fees, the whole-balance rule, the four items a receiving fund needs, treatment as non-concessional contributions against the cap and the determination that can follow, transfer only to an APRA fund and never to a self-managed fund, the tax treatment, the two components with their access rules, and the statement needed on moving back.
• Trans-Tasman portability of retirement savings, Inland Revenue Tax Technical, article on the Taxation (Annual Rates, Trans-Tasman Savings Portability, KiwiSaver, and Remedial Matters) Act 2010 - no cash withdrawal on permanent emigration to Australia, portability as the only way to take the savings across, the policy intent, proof of permanent emigration, no onward transfer to a third country, the residence condition on member tax credits, and the exemption from entry and exit taxes.
• Trans-Tasman portability of retirement savings, fact sheet, Inland Revenue Tax Policy, May 2013 - the arrangements taking effect from 1 July 2013, transfer only to APRA-regulated complying schemes and therefore not to a self-managed superannuation fund, and the end of cash withdrawal one year after migrating to Australia.

General information about transferring KiwiSaver savings to Australia under the trans-Tasman retirement savings portability arrangement. Not financial advice, not tax advice, and not a recommendation of any fund or institution. Reviewed by the Tradergy editorial team, September 2026.