While RNZ investigates how much tax influencers pay, here's what the taxable income data quietly reveals: self-employment in New Zealand is shrinking. For the first time since COVID, the total taxable income from self-employment fell in 2024.

Last year, self-employed Kiwis declared $5.56 billion in taxable income. That's down from $5.66 billion in 2023. It's the first annual drop since 2020, breaking a four-year streak of growth. (Source: Stats NZ (LEED), taxable-income-sources)

On the surface, self-employment income has grown 2.2% since 2020. But here's the tension: over the same period, inflation ran at roughly 20-25%. That means in real terms, self-employed Kiwis are earning significantly less than they were four years ago. The number went up, but the value went down.

The 2024 drop tells a sharper story. This isn't just inflation eroding value anymore. This is an actual contraction. Fewer people are making money from self-employment, or those who are making it are declaring less.

Think about what self-employment includes: tradies, consultants, freelancers, contractors, small business owners, yes, influencers, anyone operating as a sole trader. For a decade, this was the growth category. The gig economy, the side hustle generation, the future of work. Now it's reversing.

The peak was 2023 at $5.66 billion. We've fallen $98 million from that in a single year. That's not a rounding error. That's thousands of people either earning less or leaving self-employment entirely.

Context matters here. The OCR just held steady, which might help mortgage holders. But high interest rates have been crushing small business cash flow for two years. When money is expensive to borrow, sole traders feel it first. No corporate credit lines, no finance team, just you and the bank.

And while councils worry about infrastructure failures from staff shortages, self-employed tradespeople are seeing their incomes drop. The irony is thick.

The broader question: is this temporary or structural? Did COVID artificially inflate self-employment as people left traditional jobs? Are we now correcting back to normal? Or is this the start of a longer decline as economic pressure pushes people back into wage work, where at least the income is guaranteed?

The data doesn't answer that yet. But the direction is clear. Self-employment income grew every year from 2020 to 2023, then fell. The gig economy isn't expanding anymore. It's contracting. And for the first time in five years, being your own boss paid less than the year before.