Education Levy from Private Training Establishments

Introduction

Any private training establishment (PTE) that wants to enrol international students must be a signatory to the Code of Practice for the Pastoral Care of International Students.

As a signatory to the Code of Practice your institution is required under 238H of the Education Act, 1989 to pay a levy to the "Export Education Industry Development Fund".

What is the Export Education Levy?

The Export Education Levy is an industry levy that is used to support a broad range of activities and projects related to strengthening the industry. The fund is used to pay for marketing of the industry, promotion of New Zealand as an educational destination, capability development of staff involved in the industry, research and also to run the Code of Practice office which supports and monitors the pastoral care of international students. In addition the fund can be used to support students affected by the collapse of private providers.

Levy amount

The levy consists of:

• a flat fee component of $185.00 (excl GST ) payable by each provider with international-fee paying students studying in New Zealand. This fee is $185.00 regardless of the number of students enrolled or amount of tuition fee income received
• a variable component based on the tuition fees paid by the students. The variable component of the levy is set at 0.45 percent of tuition fees (excl GST) collected from international-fee paying students studying in New Zealand.

GST is payable on the levy.

Reporting and payment periods

Providers must supply levy information and make payment on a trimester basis (ie. every four months).
The spreadsheet calculates the levy amount due based on the data you enter into the spreadsheet.
The RS17 spreadsheet also acts as a TAX INVOICE.

Timetable

Trimester 1:
Covers the period 1 January to 30 April.
The flat fee component of the levy is deducted in this Trimester.
The RS17 spreadsheet must be emailed back to the Administrator by 15 May.
Payment must be made on or before 30 May.

Trimester 2:
Covers the period 1 May to 31 August.
The RS17 spreadsheet must be emailed back to the Administrator by 15 September.
Payment must be made on or before 30 September.

Trimester 3:
Covers the period 1 September to 31 December.
The RS17 spreadsheet must be emailed back to the Administrator by 31 January of the following year.
Payment must be made by 15th February.

Calculation and submission of levy

In order to calculate the levy, providers must enter data into 3 yellow coloured boxes on the spreadsheet as well as enter data into the relevant country of citizenship boxes.

Box 1: "Number of International students who ATTENDED a course in this period was"

In Trimester 1 you will be asked to enter the number of “CONTINUING” students and also the number of students who “COMMENCED” a course in the Trimester period.
Continuing students are students who have come back in the new year to continue a course that they had started in the previous year.
Commencing students are students who are new to you and have started a course of study with you sometime during the Trimester period.

In Trimester 2 and 3 you will only be asked about “COMMENCING” students.

Box 2: "In this period we received Tuition Fees from International Students (Excl GST) Totalling":

This box should reflect the amount of tuition fee income from international fee-paying students that was either:
(A) transferred from the Trust account into your Operating account during the Trimester period, plus any tuition fees received from students enrolled in short courses; OR
(B) for each of the students commencing in the Trimester, the total sum of their full tuition fees received from the students when they first enrol.

Box 3: "Number of full-time equivalent tuition weeks that relate to the tuition fees received in this period was"

This box records the number of tuition weeks that relate to the tuition fees that are declared in Box 2. If you enrol part-time students then use 20 hours of teacher contact per week as the equivalent of 1 full-time equivalent student.

Example: If $200,000 had been transferred from the Trust account to your Operating bank account during a Trimester and all students were paying $320 per week for tuition, then the total number of tuition weeks related to the tuition fee income for the Trimester is $200,000 / $320= 625 full-time equivalent tuition weeks.

Tuition fees

The tuition fees recorded in Box 2 are the tuition fees from the international students excluding GST.

The tuition fee must include all costs of sale including agents' fees, marketing costs as well as the cost of the Export Education Levy.

Additional Data Items

Because of the importance of export education to the New Zealand economy additional data items have been added to the RS17 spreadsheet.

The data items include:

• Country of citizenship
• Field of study
• Region of study in New Zealand

The summary results from the collection of the levy data is published in reports titled “Export Education Levy Key Indicators Report” which are available at the end of each Trimester on the Education Counts website.

Accredited Student Fee Protection Suppliers

The Ministry of Education has worked with PUBLIC TRUST to develop an Export Education Levy Report which will provide the data required to fill out the RS17 spreadsheet at the end of each Trimester. Providers who use Public trust as their Trustee can get a report emailed to them by logging on to the secure Public Trust webpage and selecting from the Reports Menu, “MOE Export Levy”. The report that is emailed to you contains most of the information you need to complete the levy submission.

Payment Method

Payment of the levy can be by Direct Debit, cheque or by Direct Credit. The Ministry of Education encourages all providers to use the Direct Debit method of payment in order to reduce compliance costs to all concerned.

Non-payment of levy

Paying the levy is a statutory obligation. Providers who do not pay by the due date or providers who default on a Direct Debit will be given 30 days in which to pay any outstanding levy amounts. Failure to comply within the 30 days will result in debt recovery action being taken using Baycorp Advantage and then through the Court if Baycorp Advantage is unsuccessful.

Use of information collected

Information collected from providers for the purposes of the export education levy will only be used in the administration, calculation, collection and audit of the levy and associated reporting, accountability processes and obligations to be carried out by the Ministry of Education. Information  will not be available publicly in a form that could disclose commercially sensitive material about a provider

Audit of Levy

NZQA will audit the levy payments made by providers. Their audit process will require access to the Trustee bank statements.

Further information

For any enquiries or additional help please contact:

Ron Ross
Administrator Export Education Levy
Email: ron.ross@minedu.govt.nz [no spam]