How does a tiling business tell a contractor from an employee in New Zealand?

Why does a tiling business find this hard to pin down?

Tiling runs on a mix of arrangements, and that is exactly where the confusion sits. A subbie tiler might turn up to one renovation with their own trowels, adhesive and levelling clips, quote a square metre rate for the floor preparation, and move on to the next builder's bathroom the following week. Another tiler might work a day rate, use the business's van, and take direction on which shower recess or splashback to start first.

A tiling business that supplies the tile supply, sets the falls, orders the waterproofing membrane, and tells a tiler when to turn up and which wet area comes next can end up with an arrangement that looks far more like employment than contracting, no matter what the invoice says. That gap between the paperwork and how the job is actually run is where most of the risk sits.

What tests does New Zealand actually use?

There is no single rule to apply, so the tests look at how the arrangement actually works rather than what it is called. Employment New Zealand says legal tests exist to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor, including what it calls the gateway test, and that test came into force in New Zealand in early twenty twenty-six and is not retrospective, so a contracting arrangement that started earlier can still be checked against the older common law test for the time before the change, and against both tests from that point on, per Employee or contractor?.

Inland Revenue adds that there is no single test to decide if a worker is employed or self-employed, and that the working conditions in the contract, written or agreed verbally, are what decide status, per Self-employed or employee. Inland Revenue's interpretation guideline IG 16/01 describes a control test that examines the degree of control a business exerts over how the work is done, so dictating start times, directing the order of trades on the renovation, or inspecting grout lines as they go down, all point toward employee rather than contractor, per IG 16/01. Inland Revenue's guideline IG0009 says a business cannot change a worker's employment status simply by calling them an independent contractor if the arrangement is essentially still employment, per IG0009.

What does this mean for health and safety on the job?

Your tiling business is a PCBU, a person conducting a business or undertaking, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, and that duty does not change depending on contractor or employee status. WorkSafe New Zealand says a PCBU must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health and safety of workers, calling this the “primary duty of care”, per Introduction to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015. That duty covers a worker, a term wide enough to take in your own employee laying screed and membrane as well as a subcontracted waterproofer on the same bathroom.

WorkSafe also says each PCBU is responsible for making sure its own duties are met, and that PCBUs cannot contract out of their health and safety duties or transfer them to someone else in the chain, per Introduction to HSWA. So even if the tiler in the wet area is genuinely a contractor, your tiling business still carries its own safety duty on that renovation.

What does it mean for tax and pay?

Inland Revenue's IR330C form sets out schedular payment rules for contracts wholly or substantially for labour only in the building industry, which covers a lot of tile-only subcontracting arrangements, per IR330C. Inland Revenue's Employer's guide IR335 says a business should not deduct ACC earner's levy, KiwiSaver or student loan repayments from schedular payments made to a contractor, because that is the worker's own responsibility, per IR335.

This is general information, not legal, tax or employment advice. Check your own situation with the body named here or a qualified adviser.

What does your own data show that memory doesn't?

For a tiling business running several renovations and subbie tilers at once, the real picture of who is a contractor and who is effectively an employee is scattered across job files, quotes, and invoices, not sitting neatly in anyone's memory when Inland Revenue or WorkSafe asks. A data first look at your own job and pay records, rather than a recollection built months later, is what actually shows which tiler supplied their own tile supply and adhesive, and which one worked your day rate on your schedule.

An AI agent, which is software that does a job the way you would, with your prices, wording and rules, can hold that record job by job: which arrangement used schedular payment rules, which tiler quoted square metre rates across several builders, and which one looks more directed than contracted. A second AI agent can flag when a long-running arrangement starts drifting toward control rather than a true contract, instead of that question only surfacing during a dispute. Greg coaches tiling businesses online, starting from the owner's own data, so wherever in New Zealand your renovations and bathrooms are, that does not change how the coaching works.

Where can you check the current rules?

• Employee or contractor?, Employment New Zealand's gateway test and common law test.
• Self-employed or employee, Inland Revenue's guidance on working conditions deciding status.
• Introduction to the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, WorkSafe New Zealand on PCBU duties and workers.
• IG 16/01, Inland Revenue's control test for employment status.
• IG0009, Inland Revenue on labels not changing employment status.
• IR330C, contractor tax rate notification for the building industry.
• IR335 Employer's guide, schedular payment deduction rules for employers.
• Introduction to HSWA, PCBU duties through a contracting chain.

How does Data First Coaching approach this?

Data First Coaching, built by Greg Allan, starts by looking at how your tiling business actually runs: which tilers are paid a day rate against your schedule, which quote square metre rates and bring their own tile supply and adhesive, and where the invoices and contracts sit against what the job data shows actually happened on each renovation. Through the Trade Business Intelligence, that picture comes from the owner's own job and pay records rather than from memory, so the real root of a contractor-versus-employee question, usually buried in how the job was run rather than what the paperwork says, shows up early. The how of working through status job by job is covered inside the Academy, with members, because the Academy is for owners who are open minded, innovative and willing to share, and the Trade Business Intelligence is powered by every member.