Australian take-home pay calculator
Figures Last checked Where these come from
On $95,000 with a study loan, you keep $70,259 — $19,020 income tax, $1,900 Medicare levy and $3,821 HELP, an effective 26.04%. Superannuation is paid on top and does not reduce it.
The HELP cliff, which most calculators miss
Australian study loan repayments look like a set of marginal bands, and for the first three they are. The top one is different: above $186,050 of repayment income the ATO charges 10% of your whole repayment income, not a rate on the amount above the threshold.
On $200,000 that is $20,000 — the full 10% of everything. A calculator that treats the band as marginal would charge a fraction of that. It is a cliff rather than a slope, and it means a rise across that threshold can leave someone worse off than the headline suggests.
The Medicare levy phases in
The levy is 2% of taxable income, but not from the first dollar. Below $28,011 it is nil; between there and $35,013 it phases in at 10% of the amount above the lower threshold — which is exactly the slope that arrives at the full rate as the upper threshold is reached.
The ATO publishes the two thresholds but not that 10%. It is derived here rather than assumed: solving for the income where the phase-in equals the full levy gives 1.25 × $28,011 = $35,013.75, against a published upper threshold of $35,013. The two agree, and a test asserts they continue to.
One gap stated rather than hidden: the low-income thresholds above are the ones the ATO publishes for 2025–26. No 2026–27 figures had been published when this page was last checked. They are used because applying no reduction at all would overcharge every low earner by the full 2%, which is the larger error.
What catches people out
- The top HELP band is not a marginal rate. Above $186,050 of repayment income the ATO charges 10% of your whole repayment income, not 17% of the amount over the threshold — so the repayment jumps rather than rising smoothly. A calculator that treats every band as marginal understates it substantially, and this is the single most common error in Australian take-home tools.
- The Medicare levy is not a flat 2%. Below the lower threshold it is nil, and between the two thresholds it phases in at 10% of the amount above the lower one — which is precisely the slope that reaches the full 2% at the upper threshold. Charging a flat 2% overstates the deduction for everybody on a low income.
- Repayment income is not the same as salary. The ATO adds reportable fringe benefits, net investment losses, reportable super contributions and exempt foreign employment income on top of taxable income. All of those raise the repayment, and none of them appears on a payslip — so the figure here is a floor for anyone with salary sacrifice or an investment property.
- Superannuation is not modelled and is not a deduction from this figure. The superannuation guarantee is paid by your employer on top of your wage, so it does not reduce take-home pay. Where a package is quoted as "including super", the salary you should enter here is the amount excluding it.
- These rates assume you are an Australian resident for tax purposes for the full year and entitled to the full tax-free threshold. Non-residents and working holiday makers are taxed on entirely different scales, with no tax-free threshold at all.
Questions
Why is my HELP repayment so much higher above $186,050?
Because the top band is charged on your whole repayment income rather than on the amount above the threshold. At $186,050 the repayment is worked out on the excess; one dollar higher and it becomes 10% of everything.
It is a genuine cliff in the way the scheme is written, not a rounding artefact, and it is why a small pay rise near that point can cost more than it delivers.
Does this include superannuation?
No, and it should not. The superannuation guarantee is paid by your employer in addition to your wage, so it never reduces your take-home pay.
If your offer is quoted as a package "including super", the figure to enter here is the cash salary component rather than the total package — otherwise the result will be too high.
What is the Medicare levy surcharge?
A separate charge from the Medicare levy, applied to higher earners who do not hold an appropriate level of private hospital cover. It is not modelled here, because whether it applies depends on your insurance rather than on your income alone.
If you are above the surcharge threshold without hospital cover, your actual deductions will be higher than shown.
Why does this differ from my payslip?
PAYG withholding through the year is an estimate; the amounts here are the annual liability the return settles against. Fortnightly and monthly withholding schedules round, and any offsets you claim are applied at assessment rather than in each pay.
The two should be close, and the difference is what your refund or bill at the end of the year represents.
Is this the same as the UK calculator?
No — different tax system entirely, not a currency conversion. Australia has a nil-rated tax-free threshold rather than a personal allowance, a Medicare levy rather than National Insurance, and a study loan scheme with a cliff the UK plans do not have.
The UK take-home pay calculator is a separate page for exactly that reason.
Sources
Paid somewhere else?
The same question in the two other systems this site covers. Each is a separate calculator with its own sources and its own check date — the UK has a personal allowance where Australia has a nil-rated threshold, and the United States changes the brackets themselves according to how you file.
UK take-home pay US federal take-home pay
Work out the next thing
- Pro rata salaryWhat "£35,000 pro rata" actually pays for a part-time week — annual, monthly, weekly and hourly, against the full-time equivalent.
- Hourly rate to salaryHourly, contractor day rate and annual salary converted in any direction — with the weeks you are paid kept separate from the weeks you work.
- Overtime payWhat a week of overtime is worth — and the rate the whole week averages, which is the figure the minimum wage is measured against.