We'd love to hear more of your questions about money and the economy. You can send through written questions, like these ones, but even better, you can drop us a voice memo to our email questions@rnz.co.nz.

Many teachers in NZ currently have significant size tax bills due to being paid by the Ministry of Education over 27 fortnights instead of the usual 26 fortnights for the financial year 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026. My understanding is the PAYE tables can't cope or aren't designed for 27 weeks which causes the debt. If an extra pay period (eg 27 fortnightly or 53 weekly pays) causes a small tax bill, IRD may automatically write off the amount, provided your income is under $180,000. The maximum automatic write-off is $420 for fortnightly pays and $250 for weekly pays. If however you owe say $445 then you still need to pay the entire amount rather than the difference between $420 and $445.

This is an issue that I've looked at in the past because it can come up any time there is an extra pay-day for people in a year.

Robyn Walker, a tax partner at Deloitte, said Inland Revenue would usually write off the debt as long as there wasn't another source of income that wasn't correctly taxed.

You can't have it written off if you were entitled to Working for Families during the year, you used a tailored tax code, your tax code was wrong or you were not employed by the same employer for the full 12 months.

And you're right, Inland Revenue has restrictions on the amount that can be written off due to extra pay periods.

In this situation, there's not a lot you can do. You won't be paying more tax than you are meant to - it's just the surprise factor of having a bill you weren't expecting. IR may allow you to pay what you owe off over a period of time if you get in touch.

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Is there any connection between GDP and a nation's level of debt? Globally, New Zealand seems to be okay compared to Japan or the United States.

Gareth Kiernan, chief forecaster at Infometrics, said debt was typically expressed for countries as a percentage of GDP, reflecting that the larger an economy was, the more debt it should be able to service.

"Put another way, the higher a household's income, the larger mortgage they will be able to borrow and meet the repayments on.

"We also typically see that larger and/or more well-performing economies are given more latitude by financial markets about debt levels. Thus the likes of the US, Japan, and Germany can typically have higher debt levels (as a percentage of GDP) than New Zealand or Ireland before financial markets get concerned about the riskiness and start to demand significantly higher interest rates on that debt.

"These larger countries are seen as being more stable and able to withstand external shocks.

"Similarly, the interest rates required on debt for countries like Brazil or Indonesia will typically be higher than for the US or Japan because their economies and/or political environments are judged to be less stable and therefore riskier for lenders."

He said that was evident in the fact that US bond rates were about the same as in New Zealand but US government debt was 124 percent of GDP compared to 57 percent in New Zealand.

"It's also worth noting that discussions about a country's debt can include both public and private sector debt.

"NZ's government debt looks fine by global standards, but our private sector or household debt has long been a source of concern… household debt to GDP is relatively high, reflecting concerns sometimes raised by ratings agencies that, as a country, we have a lot of debt, and our assets tend to be quite highly concentrated in the housing market."

I have an overdraft with the ASB bank I want to pay off, I am on a low income after being made redundant. The issue I have is they won't allow me to pay it off each week to reduce it. Even if I want to pay a small chunk of it or the whole amount I need to leave it in my account for anywhere from two to seven days before they'll process it due to short staffing, they say, which isn't really practical when money is tight. Is there anything I can do? Or is there a bank I can transfer it to and arrange to pay it off? And every time I want to pay it off I need to go into a branch or phone the call centre.

It sounds like you're wanting to reduce your overdraft limit in a structured way.

Any time you put money into your overdraft, you'll be reducing the balance but unless the limit is also reduced, you'll be able to pull it out and spend it again.

You might find it easier to clear it as a personal loan with set repayments - it would be worth getting some advice on the best way to structure this and how the interest rate might compare to what you're currently being charged.

Christine Liggins, at DebtFix, said you could try a financial mentor who might be able to help you get it resolved.

ASB said following changes introduced under the CCCFA reforms, it had processes to follow when reducing overdraft limits.

"For example to ensure we meet our disclosure obligations to the customer. We'd like to better understand what has happened and see how we can help... As the customer has indicated they have recently been made redundant, we can also talk through the options available to help customers experiencing financial hardship."

The bank's spokesperson suggested you could get in touch or I could pass on your contact details.