Around 400,000 New Zealanders are sole traders. Together, they contribute roughly $78 billion to the economy every year, nearly one in every six dollars of GDP.
They are midwives and photographers, plumbers and business analysts, graphic designers and IT consultants, builders, sharemilkers and loggers. They help power some of our most important export industries and are growing faster than the wider economy: the self-employed economy has expanded by an average of 3.6 per cent a year since 2011, compared with 2.9 per cent for GDP as a whole.
Yet for all they contribute, sole traders are consistently overlooked in policymaking and left to navigate systems built for employees or larger businesses. This isn’t a gap in a single policy; it is a recurring failure to recognise how they work. A business of one does everything: earns the income, runs the admin, pays the bills and plans for the future, often with little or no support.
Ahead of the 2026 election, we are asking political parties to consider sole traders from the start, not as an afterthought. The five priorities that follow are a starting point. The bigger task is to make the needs and realities of sole traders a routine consideration in policy design across government.
1. Give sole traders a fairer KiwiSaver deal
57% of sole traders support lower tax or greater matching on voluntary KiwiSaver contributions.
People who work for themselves miss out on one of the key benefits employees receive through KiwiSaver: compulsory employer contributions. And from 1 July 2025, the government contribution - the only meaningful Kiwisaver incentive for the self-employed - was halved from 50 cents for every dollar contributed, capped at $521.43 a year, to 25 cents per dollar, capped at $260.72.
For sole traders, irregular income and competing business costs can make saving for retirement harder in the first place.
Research conducted with Te Ara Ahunga Ora Retirement Commission found only 44% of self-employed New Zealanders actively contribute to KiwiSaver, compared with 78% of employees. It also found 46% of sole traders identified a lack of spare income as the main barrier to contributing.
What we’re asking for: Review KiwiSaver incentives for self-employed New Zealanders, including greater government matching or tax incentives for voluntary contributions, and make it easier for sole traders to save flexibly when their income fluctuates.
2. Modernise the tax system for sole traders
71% of sole traders support a simpler tax system. 46% support lifting the GST threshold in line with inflation to at least $75,000.
Tax should be straightforward to manage and shouldn’t discourage people from earning more. Yet New Zealand’s GST threshold has remained unchanged at $60,000 for 17 years. If it had kept pace with inflation, it would now sit at around $90,000.
Hnry research found 36% of surveyed Kiwi sole traders deliberately limit their income to stay below the threshold, particularly those selling directly to the public. Once they cross $60,000, these businesses must register for GST, which can mean increasing prices to account for 15% GST or absorbing some or all of that cost themselves.
A threshold that remains frozen while incomes and costs rise risks becoming a barrier to growth, encouraging some sole traders to turn down work or deliberately keep their businesses smaller.
What we’re asking for: Raise the GST threshold to a minimum of $80,0000, simplify tax administration for sole traders and regularly review GST and other tax thresholds so they keep pace with changing economic conditions.
3. Consider the cumulative cost of working for yourself
60% of sole traders support lower taxes and other charges for small businesses.
Sole traders carry costs that employees often do not: equipment, tools and unpaid administration, alongside responsibility for their own retirement savings. When new taxes, levies and fees are introduced, the full cost can fall on one person and their business.
Those costs need to be considered together, not one policy at a time. A change that looks modest in isolation can have a much bigger impact on someone already carrying every cost of running a business themselves.
What we’re asking for: Require a sole-trader impact assessment before introducing or increasing taxes, levies or fees. Consider targeted tax or fee relief where these costs compound the disadvantages of self-employment.
There is also a subset of sole traders who carry the costs and risks of self-employment while having relatively little control over what they can charge. Platform-dependent workers, such as rideshare and delivery drivers, may pay for their own fuel, vehicles, insurance, and taxes, while a third-party platform influences or determines the price of their work.
Where a third-party platform effectively controls what a sole trader can charge, New Zealand should consider a minimum earnings standard that ensures they can earn a reasonable living after unavoidable work-related costs. This would protect platform-dependent workers without imposing wage regulation on genuinely independent sole traders who set their own rates.
4. Back sole traders to upskill
66% support policies that encourage trade and professional training to meet skills needs.
Sole traders need opportunities to develop their skills, just like employees, but much of the training system is built around employers investing in their workers rather than individuals investing in themselves.
Business advice can help, but it is no substitute for technical training or professional development. Working for yourself should not mean missing out on opportunities to build the skills needed to grow and stay competitive. International models show self-employed workers can be included: France and South Korea have systems that provide vocational or professional development support to eligible self-employed people.
What we’re asking for: Make government-supported training, upskilling and professional development accessible to sole traders, with eligibility and delivery that recognise how they work.
5. Help sole traders build stronger businesses
61% support grants and subsidies for new and growing small businesses.
Some business support is available to sole traders, but eligibility rules and programme design are often built with SMEs in mind. Other assistance focuses on helping people move from a benefit to self-employment, rather than supporting those already running a business and looking to grow it.
A one-person business needs a clear way to find relevant help without having to navigate programmes that assume it has staff or a dedicated back office. Support should recognise how sole traders operate and help them strengthen, develop and grow their businesses.
What we’re asking for: Make existing business growth support, capability programmes and targeted assistance accessible and relevant to sole traders, with a clear entry point for businesses of one.
Make sole traders part of the decision
We’re asking political parties to commit to these five priorities and explain how their policies will work for people working for themselves. Sole traders should be considered at the start of every relevant policy decision, not left to navigate the gaps afterwards.