Cook Islands payroll guide

This guide explains Cook Islands payroll requirements and how SmoothPay applies them. It covers PAYE and Pa Enua tax treatment, CINSF contributions, leave and final pays, payment classifications, reporting and bank files.

Amounts in this guide are in New Zealand dollars (NZD). You are responsible for applying the rules that relate to your employees and employment agreements. The linked government and fund resources provide further detail.

For everyday pay entry and completing a payrun, follow:

The Settings screen → General tab holds the employer’s RMD # and Business #. Employee RMD numbers are recorded separately in Staff → Tax → Tax ID number.

The Settings → CINSF tab holds the fund provider, default employee and employer contribution rates, and employer reference. The Bank tab holds the company’s bank and payment-file format. These details support the local returns and files described below.

For more information about company details, follow:

SmoothPay calculates PAYE automatically from taxable earnings, the employee’s pay cycle and their Tax settings. Cook Islands payroll supports weekly, fortnightly, four-weekly, monthly and half-monthly pays.

Go to Staff → Tax, select Edit, enter the employee’s details and Save.

The two variation fields appear under Tax variation (only if instructed by tax office). Use them when the Revenue Management Division (RMD) supplies an instruction.

For secondary employment, leave Primary income unticked and enter the supplied secondary rate in Flat tax rate. Without a supplied rate, SmoothPay uses the 30% No Declaration calculation. The appropriate secondary rate depends on the employee’s circumstances; 30% is the software’s fallback rather than a rate that applies to every secondary job.

For more information about the Tax tab controls, follow:

The annual marginal bands are:

Pa Enua residence involves making a home in the Pa Enua and meeting the 183-day residence requirement. The legislation also provides for specified absences and proportional treatment when arriving or leaving permanently. See the Income Tax Amendment Act 2023 for those conditions and the applicable rates.

SmoothPay applies the primary-income bands to the pay and its period. Annualising the pay makes it easier to see how the annual bands produce the deduction for that week or fortnight.

For example, an employee receives $1,187.50 in taxable pay for one week, with Primary income selected and no tax variation. Multiply the weekly pay by 52 to get the annual equivalent:

$1,187.50 × 52 = $61,750.

The ordinary primary-income calculation taxes each portion at its own rate:

Divide the annual tax by 52 to return to the weekly amount:

$11,190.50 ÷ 52 = $215.20 PAYE.

This is the deduction SmoothPay produces for the example.

For an eligible Pa Enua resident on the same weekly pay, the first $60,000 is tax-free. The remaining $1,750 × 27% = $472.50 annual tax, divided by 52, gives $9.09 PAYE. Selecting Pa Enua Resident produces that result for this primary-income example.

The same annual earnings paid fortnightly would be $2,375 per fortnight × 26 = $61,750. Divide the annual tax by 26:

Annualising expresses this pay as an annual amount so the bands can be applied. It does not mean the employee has already earned that amount during the year.

Monthly wages returns and PAYE payment are due by the 20th of the following month. A due date falling on a weekend or public holiday moves to the next business day. MFEM publishes the annual reconciliation and certificate dates in its tax calendar.

The Reports screen → Tax category provides these Cook Islands outputs:

Choose the required output under Reports → Tax and select the reporting period or tax year. The annual wage workbook is available from the Files screen after running RM106 PAYE reconciliation statement.

Use the relevant return figures or wage workbook for the employer’s Tax Online filing process. Generating the reports and files in SmoothPay does not submit the return or pay the tax.

The annual workbook contains employer details, the tax year, and employee names, RMD numbers, gross wages, PAYE and start/end date columns. RM101 certificates can also be produced individually from the employee’s History tab print tools.

For more information about producing reports and downloading files, follow:

MFEM provides current forms on its filing and forms page.

The Cook Islands National Superannuation Fund’s compulsory contribution rates are 5% employee and 5% employer. Contribution earnings include wages, overtime, allowances, bonuses and holiday pay. Termination lump sums are excluded from that base except accrued holiday pay. See the CINSF employer handbook.

SmoothPay calculates both contributions automatically. For example, $1,187.50 of contribution earnings gives $59.38 employee CINSF and $59.38 employer CINSF.

In Settings → CINSF, the supplied employee and employer defaults are 5% each. Record the company’s CINSF employer reference/code here. The employer code is also available in the CINSF agency’s payee details.

This tab also controls allocation of employer contributions to costing. For more information, follow:

Go to Staff → CINSF, select Edit, complete the relevant fields and Save.

For example, if the calculated employer contribution is $59.38, a Minimum $ of $100 makes the employer contribution $100. The employee’s compulsory contribution remains $59.38.

Where an employee has an applicable exemption, use Permanent exemption from super rules. The fund’s employer handbook explains the age, election and recognised-scheme conditions. Establish eligibility before applying an exemption.

Regular voluntary contributions must be at least 1% of earnings under the fund’s published rules. They are additional employee savings and are not matched by the employer. See the CINSF employer handbook.

Enter the chosen method and value in Staff → CINSF → Voluntary? / Rate/Amount. SmoothPay deducts the voluntary contribution separately from compulsory CINSF; it appears in Other deductions and reduces net pay.

Run Contributions schedule and CINSF file from Reports → CINSF for the required month. The schedule is produced with a CINSF CSV in the Files screen for the monthly declaration process in Te Roro, CINSF’s employer portal.

The printed schedule shows contribution earnings, employee and employer contributions, and voluntary contributions. The CSV contains First, Last, MonthlyGrossSalary and Voluntary columns. The category also provides a Member list.

CINSF contributions are due by the 20th of the following month. Portal access and employer resources are available through CINSF.

The annual full-time minimums for eligible non-casual employees are 10 days of annual leave and 5 days of sick leave. Part-time entitlements are proportional to full-time hours. SmoothPay supplies annual accruals of 10 days and 5 days, with no cap on either supplied code. See Internal Affairs’ leave entitlement factsheet for annual, sick and public-holiday rules.

SmoothPay uses the Days method and prorates accrual to the pay-period end date. Annual-leave liability uses the To date balance. The balance view also shows the anniversary balance. For example, an anniversary balance of zero can sit alongside 6.986 days To date, valued at $1,397.20 at $200 per day.

The Staff → Leave tab holds the employee’s leave records. For the shared leave procedures, follow:

For different contractual or proportional entitlements, opening balances and corrections, follow:

A non-casual employee receives ordinary pay for a public holiday that falls on a normal working day. Work on a public holiday attracts double time, or an equivalent arrangement such as pay for the hours worked plus time off in lieu. See the Employment Relations Act, section 38.

Use PUBLIC — Public holiday (not worked) under Leave taken for a paid day off. For hours worked, the supplied PUBLIC — Public holiday (worked) work code applies a 2× multiplier. For an arrangement using time in lieu, follow:

From 1 July 2026, eligible non-casual employees, including foreign workers, have the following entitlements. Formal adoption of a child under one year is also covered, subject to the Act’s conditions. See the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2026.

Government-funded parental pay uses the prescribed minimum wage and a 40-hour week. Maternity scheme eligibility includes PAYE registration and excludes public-service employees already covered by their public-service maternity provisions. Contractual employer maternity payments are additional. See the Employment Relations Act, section 41, read with the 2026 amendment.

The published maternity scheme pays the employer, who pays the employee through payroll with the required tax and superannuation deductions. Application information is available from Internal Affairs.

SmoothPay supplies MATERNITY and PATERNITY leave codes using Hours and auto-balance. The employer determines the applicable payment; these codes record the hours and rate entered.

To pay maternity or paternity leave through payroll:

Unused accrued annual leave is payable on termination at the employee’s ordinary rate, together with outstanding pay and other entitlements. See the Employment Relations Act, section 49.

SmoothPay values the annual-leave liability from the To date balance. The pay-period end date controls the accrual through that date. When the employee finishes before the normal period end, use a separate final pay with the period end set to their finish date.

For automatic and manual final-pay procedures, follow:

Separate redundancy or qualifying retirement payments use the corresponding allowance classifications below. Accrued annual-leave pay remains part of CINSF contribution earnings.

The work classifications are Ordinary time and Overtime. Supplied work codes include ORDINARY at 1×, OVERTIME at 1.5×, and DOUBLE and public-holiday work at 2×. These codes include CINSF.

For overtime entry and code setup, follow:

The Cook Islands allowance classifications are:

The retirement concession applies to qualifying employment-related retirement bonuses, gratuities or retiring allowances. 5% is the taxable portion of the payment, not the tax rate. See Income Tax Act, section 46(2)(a).

For the common allowance-code setup steps, follow:

Available classifications are Annual leave, Personal (Sick) Leave, Long Service Leave, Workers compensation (not worked), Public Holiday Leave, Time in lieu and Other Leave. Paid leave is taxable and the supplied leave codes include CINSF.

The supplied annual and sick codes hold accumulating day balances. Public-holiday leave uses Days with auto-balance; maternity and paternity use Hours with auto-balance. Bereavement uses Other Leave, with No entitlement and auto-balance. The supplied LIEU code holds a balance in Hours with no automatic accrual.

The Salary Packaging agency classification and employee Payments tab support salary packaging arrangements. Establish the arrangement’s tax treatment with RMD before entering it. Common payment and deduction setup is covered in:

Piece-work and contractor setup follow the shared processes. The Cook Islands contractor setup supports an agreed tax deduction and VAT, with a tax invoice as the payment document. For those procedures, follow:

The Settings → Bank tab holds the company’s banking setup. For an employee to be included in a bank file, enter their bank account details and set their Pay preference to Direct credit.

SmoothPay lists ANZ Diskpay, ANZ Transactive, BSP QuickPay, BCI ABA, Other XLSX and None as file options. Select the format required by your bank’s payroll service.

Enter the six-digit BSB, followed by a hyphen and the account number, in the combined BSB+account field. SmoothPay inserts the hyphen after the first six digits when you leave the field.

The BSB identifies the recipient bank using the codes expected by the company’s selected banking system. This means the same recipient bank can need a different BSB depending on whether the company uses ANZ or BSP:

Select the company’s bank in Settings → Bank. When entering an employee’s bank account under Staff → Bank, select the recipient bank from the list beside BSB+account. SmoothPay fills the corresponding prefix; complete the account number after it.

For example:

Keep leading zeros and any account suffix supplied by the bank. Use the Cook Islands prefixes above rather than copying another country’s bank codes.

BCI account numbers may contain S or L. SmoothPay accepts those letters or their numeric equivalents: S = 5 and L = 7.

For BCI ABA payments, enter the account’s nine-digit ARN, supplied by BCI. This applies to employee bank accounts and BCI accounts in agency payee details.

Employees can have multiple bank accounts, allocated by a fixed amount, percentage or balance of net pay. For company and employee bank setup and file production, follow:

When moving an existing Cook Islands payroll into SmoothPay, bring across employee RMD and CINSF membership numbers, current tax treatment, leave balances and payroll history. The history supports the calendar-year PAYE reconciliation, certificates and CINSF reporting.

For the established migration and opening-balance procedures, follow:

For leave records, balance reports and payslip production, follow: