Australia · All-tools FAQ
Straight answers for every SmartCalc tool: GST, income tax, super, HECS, novated lease, stamp duty, land tax, CGT, redundancy/ETP tax, and more. Jump to the section you need.
Multiply the GST-exclusive price by 1.1 to get the GST-inclusive total. For example, $100 excl. GST becomes $110 incl. GST. To find just the GST component, multiply the exclusive price by 0.1.
A GST-inclusive price already has the 10% built in, so 10% of the inclusive figure overstates the tax. Dividing by 11 correctly isolates the GST component. For example, $110 incl. GST divided by 11 gives $10 GST, not $11.
10% is the standard rate on most goods and services. Some items are GST-free, including most basic food, many medical and health services, and some education courses. Businesses selling only GST-free items may not need to register at all below the turnover threshold.
Registration is compulsory once your business's GST turnover reaches $75,000 per year ($150,000 for non-profits), or if you provide taxi, rideshare or limousine services regardless of turnover. You can also register voluntarily below that threshold.
If you're registered for GST, you report GST collected on sales and GST paid on purchases through your Business Activity Statement (BAS), usually lodged quarterly. The difference is what you pay to, or claim back from, the ATO.
Round each line item's GST to the nearest cent rather than rounding only the final total. Rounding only at the total level can cause small discrepancies that compound across an invoice with many lines, or across a quarter's worth of transactions on your BAS.
For taxable sales under $1,000: that the document is intended to be a tax invoice, your identity and ABN, the issue date, a brief description of the items sold (with quantity and price), the GST amount or a statement that the price includes GST, and the extent to which each item is a taxable sale. Sales of $1,000 or more also need the buyer's identity or ABN. You must give a customer one within 28 days of them asking, unless the sale is $82.50 (including GST) or less.
Common GST-free categories include most basic food, some medical, health and care services, some education courses, some childcare, exports, and some religious and charitable activities. Financial supplies like loan interest and life insurance are input-taxed rather than GST-free, a different treatment that affects whether GST credits can be claimed on related purchases.
Australia uses a marginal tax system: each bracket of your income is taxed at that bracket's rate, not your whole income at one flat rate. For 2026-27, income up to $18,200 is tax-free, the next portion to $45,000 is taxed at 15%, then 30% to $135,000, 37% to $190,000, and 45% above that. Add the 2% Medicare levy on top for most taxpayers.
From 1 July 2026, the second tax bracket rate dropped from 16% to 15% on income between $18,201 and $45,000. All other bracket thresholds are unchanged, and a further cut to 14% is legislated from 1 July 2027.
Not necessarily. If your taxable income is at or below the low-income threshold ($28,011 for a single taxpayer in 2025-26) you pay no Medicare levy. Between the lower and upper thresholds you pay a reduced, shaded-in amount. Above the upper threshold ($35,013 in 2025-26) you pay the full 2%.
No, it deliberately excludes offsets like LITO, HELP/HECS repayments, the Medicare levy surcharge, and the private health insurance rebate, so it's a quick estimate of tax and Medicare levy on your income rather than a full tax return calculation.
LITO reduces the tax you pay if your taxable income is below $66,667. The maximum offset is $700 for taxable income of $37,500 or less, tapering by 5 cents per dollar to $45,000, then 1.5 cents per dollar to $66,667. It's applied when you lodge, not through this calculator's figures.
Your marginal rate is charged on your next dollar of income. Your average rate is total tax divided by total income, and it's always lower than your marginal rate under a progressive system, since earlier brackets are taxed at lower rates than your top bracket.
12%, effective from 1 July 2025 for both the 2025-26 and 2026-27 financial years. This is the final scheduled increase in the legislated SG rate rise that began in 2021, and no further rate rise is currently legislated.
Payday Super starts 1 July 2026 and requires employers to pay Super Guarantee contributions into an employee's fund within 7 business days of each payday, replacing the old quarterly payment cycle. It also shifts the contribution basis from ordinary time earnings against a quarterly cap to qualifying earnings against a single annual maximum contribution base.
Generally no. Super Guarantee is calculated on ordinary time earnings (OTE), which typically excludes overtime unless your award or agreement doesn't separate ordinary hours from overtime. OTE usually does include commissions, shift loadings, and most allowances. Work out your ordinary-hours figure with the Pay & Overtime Calculator first.
Yes. Earnings above the maximum contribution base aren't subject to compulsory SG. For 2025-26 that cap was $62,500 of OTE per quarter (roughly $250,000 a year); for 2026-27, under Payday Super, it's a single annual figure of $270,830 of qualifying earnings.
Most employees can. If you don't choose, your employer must first request your "stapled" fund from the ATO (an existing account linked to you from a previous job) since 1 November 2021, and use that if one exists, before falling back to their own default fund.
It becomes the Super Guarantee Charge (SGC), paid to the ATO rather than directly into your fund, generally including the unpaid amount plus interest and an administrative component. Check whether your super has landed via ATO online services (myGov) or your fund directly.
Casual loading is an extra amount, commonly 25%, paid on top of the base award rate to casual employees in lieu of entitlements permanent employees receive, such as paid annual and personal leave. The exact rate can differ by award or enterprise agreement.
The National Employment Standards don't set a fixed overtime rate; your modern award, enterprise agreement, or contract does. A common pattern is time-and-a-half (1.5×) for the first two or three overtime hours and double time (2×) after that, but this varies by industry. Check the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool for your specific award.
Usually not stacked: most awards already build a loaded rate into overtime and penalty rates for casual employees, rather than adding the standard casual loading on top of those loaded rates. Casual loading is normally applied to ordinary hours only. Check your specific award if this matters for payroll accuracy.
No. Non-casual employees who'd normally work that day are paid their base rate for those ordinary hours if they take it off. If you don't normally work that day, there's no payment for it. Casuals generally aren't paid for public holidays they don't work.
Often yes, but the trigger varies by award: some apply overtime once a part-timer exceeds their own agreed hours, others only once they exceed the full-time standard (commonly 38 hours a week) for their classification. Check your actual award via the Fair Work Ombudsman's Pay and Conditions Tool.
Most novated leases use the statutory formula method: taxable value = base value × 20% (statutory percentage), less any post-tax employee contribution. FBT payable is the taxable value × the Type 1 gross-up rate (2.0802) × the FBT rate (47%).
Paying part of the car's costs from after-tax salary. That contribution reduces the taxable value directly; contribute an amount equal to the full taxable value and FBT drops to nil. It's a genuine ATO mechanism, but it trades pre-tax efficiency for after-tax dollars.
If it's a battery electric or hydrogen fuel cell vehicle under the luxury car tax threshold for fuel-efficient vehicles ($91,387 for 2025-26), and was first held and used on or after 1 July 2022, yes. Plug-in hybrids lost eligibility from 1 April 2025 unless grandfathered under an existing, financially binding arrangement.
The statutory formula, since it's what most novated lease providers use and doesn't need a 12-week logbook. It assumes the car is available for private use all year.
It's a state and territory tax, not a federal one. Each jurisdiction sets its own rate scale, first home buyer concessions, and foreign purchaser surcharge. The ACT is unwinding conveyance duty for eligible owner-occupiers entirely, with no income or property cap from 1 July 2026.
No. It expired for settlements after 30 June 2026 and wasn't renewed, despite several comparison sites still listing it as active. Standard duty now applies to established homes in Tasmania regardless of first-home-buyer status.
Only for new homes, off-the-plan apartments, and vacant land to build on. Established homes aren't eligible at all, regardless of buyer status.
NSW (9%), VIC (8%), QLD (8%, AFAD), WA (7%), SA (7%), and TAS (8%). The ACT and NT don't charge one on conveyance duty.
The Medicare levy is a separate 2% most taxpayers pay regardless of insurance. The Medicare levy surcharge (MLS) is an extra 1%-1.5%, only if you're above the income threshold and don't hold appropriate private hospital cover.
Hospital cover (not extras-only) with an excess of $750 or less for singles, or $1,500 or less for couples/families, held for the period you're avoiding the surcharge for.
An income and age-tested percentage of your premium, from 32.158% (base tier, 70+) down to 0% at tier 3, applied automatically by your insurer as a reduced premium.
Yes, by $1,500 per MLS dependent child after the first.
Under the NES, it's a set number of weeks of ordinary pay by years of service, from 4 weeks at 1 year up to 16 weeks at 9 years, on top of your notice period.
A genuine, deliberate NES table feature, not an error. It's been this way since the standard was introduced.
Generally no, if they employ fewer than 15 people at the time notice is given. Notice of termination still applies regardless of business size.
A genuine redundancy payment is tax-free up to a base amount plus an amount per completed year of service ($13,598 + $6,801/year for 2026-27), then taxed as an ETP at concessional rates above that, subject to the $270,000 ETP cap. See the ETP & Redundancy Tax Calculator for the full breakdown.
It isn't part of the NES; it's governed by separate state legislation. VIC and SA accrue continuously from day one; NSW, QLD and WA vest fully at 10 years with earlier pro-rata access; the ACT runs a general scheme plus separate portable industry schemes.
Often, from an earlier point (commonly 5 or 7 years), but usually only for a qualifying reason like redundancy, illness, death, or employer-initiated termination, not an ordinary resignation.
No, it's set nationally by the NES: 1-4 weeks by tenure, plus an extra week if you're over 45 with 2+ years' service.
It runs a general 7-year scheme plus separate portable schemes for specific industries, where leave transfers between registered employers rather than resetting.
For 2026-27, compulsory repayments start once your repayment income exceeds $69,528. Below that, no compulsory repayment is required, though you can still make voluntary payments.
From 2025-26 onward, your compulsory repayment is calculated only on the portion of your repayment income above each threshold, not your whole repayment income at one rate. For 2026-27: nil up to $69,528, 15% on the portion between $69,528 and $129,717, 17% between $129,717 and $186,050, and 10% on anything above $186,050. This replaced the old system, where crossing a threshold could push your entire repayment income into a higher effective rate.
Repayment income is broader than taxable income. It's your taxable income plus total net investment losses (including rental losses), total reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions (salary sacrifice and personally deductible contributions), and exempt foreign employment income. This calculator asks for one repayment income figure; if you have any of those add-backs, use your repayment income, not just your salary.
Indexation is applied once a year, on 1 June, to whatever balance remains after that year's compulsory and voluntary repayments. Since a 2023 law change, it's calculated as the lower of CPI or WPI (Wage Price Index) growth over the preceding 24 months, rather than CPI alone. The most recently applied rate was 2.8% (June 2026); future years will differ depending on inflation and wage growth, so treat any indexation estimate as indicative, not a forecast.
Both. If you have a HELP debt and tell your employer, they withhold additional PAYG amounts from your pay based on your expected income, similar to tax withholding. Your actual compulsory repayment is then finalised when you lodge your tax return, based on your actual repayment income for the year — you may get a small refund or owe a top-up if withholding didn't match exactly.
Capital gain equals capital proceeds (generally the sale price) minus the cost base. The cost base includes what you paid to acquire the asset plus incidental costs of acquiring, holding and disposing of it, such as stamp duty, conveyancing and agent commissions, and capital improvements. If you sold below market value or gifted the asset, market value at the time is used instead of the actual proceeds.
Australian resident individuals and trusts qualify for the 50% CGT discount, provided the asset was held for at least 12 months before disposal. Companies don't get the discount at all. Superannuation funds get a 33.33% discount instead of 50%. A special 60% discount can apply to qualifying affordable rental housing.
Generally yes, if the property has been your main residence for your entire ownership period and hasn't been used to produce income. If it was rented out or used for business for part of the time, or you've claimed the 6-year absence rule, only a partial exemption may apply, and the calculation gets more complex. This calculator's main-residence toggle models the simple full-exemption case only — see a tax agent for mixed-use or partial-exemption scenarios.
There's no separate capital gains tax rate in Australia. Your net capital gain (after any discount) is simply added to your other taxable income for the year and taxed at your normal marginal rates. That means the same dollar gain can attract very different tax depending on what bracket it pushes you into, which is why this calculator asks for your other taxable income.
Yes. Capital losses can only be offset against capital gains, not against other income like salary. If your losses exceed your gains in a year, the unused loss carries forward to offset gains in future years indefinitely. Losses are applied before the 50% discount, not after.
Generally no. Every state and territory exempts your principal place of residence from land tax (the ACT is a partial exception, since its fixed charge and AUV rate apply to rateable land generally — check ACT rules specifically). Land tax mainly affects investment properties, holiday homes, and land held by companies or trusts.
Land tax is a state and territory tax, not a federal one, so thresholds, rates and surcharges differ meaningfully between jurisdictions. The Northern Territory has no general land tax at all, while the ACT has no tax-free threshold at all, applying a fixed charge plus a marginal rate to essentially all rateable land. The other six states each set their own threshold and rate scale, revised periodically.
Council rates are charged by local government on every property to fund local services, and everyone pays them regardless of how much land they own. Land tax is a state-level tax based on the aggregated unimproved value of land you own above a threshold (or, in the ACT, on essentially all rateable land), and your home is usually exempt from it.
In most states, yes. NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania each charge a foreign owner or absentee owner surcharge on top of standard land tax, ranging roughly from 2% to 5% of the land value depending on the state. South Australia and the Northern Territory don't. No foreign or trust land tax surcharge was found on the ACT Revenue Office's primary land tax page at the time this calculator was built — treat that as unconfirmed rather than assume none exists.
No. Stamp duty (transfer duty) is a one-off cost paid when you buy property. Land tax is an ongoing annual cost for as long as you hold land above the relevant threshold. See the Stamp Duty Calculator for the one-off acquisition cost.
For 2026-27, the tax-free limit is $13,598 plus $6,801 for each completed year of service. For example, 8 completed years of service gives a tax-free limit of $13,598 + (8 × $6,801) = $67,806. Anything above that limit is taxed as an employment termination payment (ETP).
The ETP cap for 2026-27 is $270,000. The taxable component of your ETP up to this cap is taxed concessionally (15% or 30% plus the Medicare levy, depending on your age); any amount above the cap is taxed at the top marginal rate. The cap applies to the taxable component only, after the tax-free redundancy amount has already been removed.
The concessional ETP tax rate is lower if you're at or above your preservation age (broadly, the age you can access your super) when the payment is made: 15% plus the Medicare levy, versus 30% plus the Medicare levy if you're below preservation age. This calculator asks directly whether you're at or above preservation age rather than calculating it, since preservation age depends on your date of birth.
Not entirely. A genuine redundancy payout has a tax-free component (the amount up to the limit above) plus a taxable component that becomes an ETP. Other termination payments — a payment in lieu of notice, an employment settlement, or a non-genuine redundancy — may be entirely an ETP with no tax-free redundancy amount at all. This calculator's 'genuine redundancy' toggle controls whether the tax-free amount applies.
No — unused annual leave and long service leave paid out on termination are taxed under separate rules, not as part of the ETP. Enter only the genuine termination/redundancy component here. See the Leave, Notice & LSL Calculator for your leave entitlements separately.
Investment return assumptions are net of tax and fees, by risk profile, sourced from MoneySmart's published superannuation calculator: Cash 3.7%, Conservative 4.9%, Moderate 5.7%, Balanced 6.1%, Growth 6.4%, High Growth 6.8%. Inflation is assumed at 2.5% p.a. (CPI) plus a further 1.2% p.a. for rising living standards when results are shown in today's dollars. Default fees are $59 a year plus 0.11% of your balance, and default insurance is $599 a year (optional). All of these are shown on this page and can be changed.
No. This is a general estimate based on standard assumptions, not personal financial advice, and it isn't intended to be relied on for a decision about a specific financial product. Your actual balance will differ from this projection, potentially significantly, depending on your fund's actual investment performance, contribution changes, fee changes and legislative changes over time.
Projecting a retirement-phase income stream (how long a balance would last, drawn down at a given rate) requires a second set of standard assumptions — retirement-phase investment returns, drawdown rate and life expectancy — that add real complexity and their own regulatory considerations. This calculator deliberately scopes to the more commonly asked question: what will my balance be worth at a chosen retirement age.
A dollar figure decades in the future buys less than the same figure today because of inflation. Showing the result in 'today's dollars' deflates the projected balance by the assumed inflation rate over the projection period, so you can compare it meaningfully to today's cost of living, rather than being misled by a large nominal number that's partly just inflation.
Higher-growth investment options (more shares and property, less cash and bonds) have historically delivered higher average long-term returns, with more year-to-year volatility, than conservative options. The risk profile you select should reflect your actual super investment option, not just the one with the highest projected number — check your super fund's statement or portal for the option you're actually invested in.
You can count up to $15,000 of voluntary contributions per financial year toward FHSSS release, up to a lifetime maximum of $50,000 across all years. This applies to voluntary concessional and non-concessional contributions combined — employer Super Guarantee contributions don't count.
Associated earnings are a deemed return the ATO calculates on your eligible contributions, using the shortfall interest charge (SIC) rate — the 90-day Bank Accepted Bill rate plus a 3% margin, compounded daily. You receive this deemed amount when you withdraw, regardless of how your super fund actually performed; if your fund earned more than the SIC rate, you don't get the difference, and if it earned less, you're not penalised for it either.
The SIC rate for the July-September 2026 quarter is 7.43% per annum. It's reset quarterly, generally announced around two weeks before each quarter starts, so it will differ in future quarters — treat any FHSSS earnings estimate as indicative rather than locked in.
It depends on the contribution type. Non-concessional (after-tax) contributions and their earnings come out tax-free. Concessional contributions (salary sacrifice or tax-deducted) and their earnings are included in your assessable income and taxed at your marginal rate, less a 30% non-refundable tax offset — so if your marginal rate is below 30%, there's effectively no extra tax on that portion.
No. The FHSSS is only for a property you intend to live in as your home, and you generally need to move in within 12 months of settlement and live there for at least 6 months (with some extensions available). It's not available for an investment property you don't intend to occupy.
Division 293 tax is an extra 15% tax on some or all of your concessional (before-tax) super contributions, on top of the standard 15% contributions tax your fund already pays. It applies once your income plus low-tax contributions exceeds $250,000 in a financial year, so the effective tax rate on the affected contributions rises from 15% to 30%.
The threshold combines your income for surcharge purposes (broadly taxable income, reportable fringe benefits and net investment losses) with your low-tax (concessional) super contributions for the year. If that combined figure exceeds $250,000, Division 293 tax applies to the lesser of your low-tax contributions or the amount by which the combined figure exceeds $250,000.
Low-tax contributions are broadly your concessional contributions: employer Super Guarantee contributions, salary-sacrificed amounts, and personal contributions you've claimed a tax deduction for. Non-concessional (after-tax, undeducted) contributions aren't low-tax contributions and don't count toward Division 293.
The ATO issues a Division 293 assessment after you lodge your tax return. You can choose to pay it from your own money or release the amount from your super fund using a release authority, which the ATO will organise once you elect this option.
No, they're separate issues. Exceeding your concessional contributions cap (generally $30,000 for most people) means the excess is added to your taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate, with an interest charge. Division 293 is a different extra tax that applies to contributions within your cap, once your income plus contributions crosses $250,000, regardless of whether you've also exceeded your cap.
Gross yield is annual rent divided by property value, ignoring costs. Net yield subtracts annual outgoings (rates, insurance, agent fees, maintenance, and often loan interest) from the rent first, then divides by property value. Net yield is the more honest figure since it reflects what you actually keep, but gross yield is what's usually quoted in listings and comparisons because it's simpler to calculate consistently.
A property is negatively geared when the costs of holding it (loan interest, rates, insurance, agent fees, maintenance, depreciation) exceed the rental income it generates, producing a net rental loss. That loss can generally be offset against your other taxable income, reducing your overall tax bill — which is the main reason some investors accept a cash-flow loss on the property itself.
If your deductible property expenses exceed your rental income, the resulting net rental loss is added to your other deductions, reducing your taxable income. The value of that reduction is the loss multiplied by your marginal tax rate (including the Medicare levy) — someone on the 30% bracket saves 30 cents per dollar of loss (plus Medicare levy), someone on the 45% bracket saves 45 cents per dollar (plus Medicare levy). It reduces the size of the loss, it doesn't eliminate it.
Not necessarily — they suit different strategies. A high-yield property (often regional or lower-priced) tends to produce stronger cash flow but sometimes slower capital growth. A negatively geared property (often capital-city, higher-priced) usually produces weaker cash flow offset partly by tax relief, with an investment case built more around capital growth than rental income. Neither is objectively correct; it depends on your cash flow tolerance, timeframe and goals.
No — this tool covers the ongoing holding-period yield and tax position only. When you eventually sell, capital gains tax applies to any profit, and a history of claiming depreciation can also reduce your cost base. See the Capital Gains Tax Calculator for that separate calculation.
It depends on your lodgement cycle. Quarterly lodgers report by the 28th of the month following the quarter's end (with a later concession date if lodging through a registered agent), monthly lodgers report by the 21st of the following month with no agent concession, and annual lodgers (available only if you're voluntarily registered for GST under the turnover threshold) report by 31 October, or later through a registered agent.
Yes. A "nil" BAS, one with no GST, PAYG withholding or PAYG instalment activity for the period, still has to be lodged by the normal due date. The ATO doesn't automatically know a period was quiet; not lodging looks identical to being late, and can trigger the same failure-to-lodge penalty.
Two separate costs can apply. The Failure to Lodge (FTL) penalty accrues per 28-day block the BAS remains outstanding (capped after five blocks), regardless of whether you owe any money. Separately, the General Interest Charge (GIC) accrues daily on any amount paid late, whether or not the BAS itself was lodged on time. Lodging late but paying on time still avoids the GIC; lodging on time but paying late still avoids the FTL penalty. It's possible to trigger both, either, or neither depending on which deadline you actually miss.
Generally yes, for quarterly and annual BAS, but not for monthly BAS. The concession dates exist because agents lodge on behalf of many clients at once; you need to be on the agent's client list before the standard due date to receive the concession, not just engage one after you're already late.
A single BAS typically bundles several obligations into one lodgement: GST collected and paid, PAYG withholding (tax withheld from employees' wages), PAYG instalments (prepayments toward your own income tax), and for some businesses, fringe benefits tax instalments and luxury car tax or wine equalisation tax. Getting the GST split right, using a tool like the GST calculator, is only one part of an accurate BAS.