Understanding your tax year
Which income year a date belongs to, the resident brackets that apply, what PAYG already withheld, and the levies that still get assessed at lodgement.
The Australian income year is not the calendar year, and a payslip is not a tax return. Those two facts cause most of the confusion between July and October: people apply this year’s rates to last year’s income, or they treat the tax already withheld as the tax they owe.
This collection names the year first, applies the right resident brackets, then reconciles that assessment with what was withheld from each pay — including the Medicare levy and any study loan that only appears as a single line at lodgement.
Working through it
Step 1
Name the income year the date belongs to
30 June is still the old year; 1 July is the new one. Getting this wrong means using the wrong brackets, the wrong HELP thresholds and the wrong superannuation guarantee rate.
Step 2
Assess the year-end income tax
Resident tax is layered. The first $18,200 is untaxed and only the slice above each threshold is charged at the higher rate. This is the figure your notice of assessment starts from.
Step 3
See what an employer would have withheld
PAYG uses a different formula, rounded every pay. The gap between this and the year-end assessment is the ordinary size of a refund or a bill when nothing else is going on.
Step 4
Add the Medicare levy
The 2% levy is separate from income tax and is not reduced by the low income tax offset. Low-income shade-in and family thresholds live here, not in the bracket calculation.
Step 5
Compare two years or two incomes on the same page
Useful when a rate change or a pay rise crosses a financial year. Keep every other assumption identical so the only thing that moves is the thing you are testing.
What these tools do not cover
- Deductions, offsets other than LITO, a second job and investment income all change a real assessment.
- Lodgement due dates depend on whether you lodge yourself or through an agent, and this collection does not track them.
- Foreign-resident rates and the working holiday maker scale are different tools, not a toggle on these pages.
Each calculator lists its own assumptions and sources in full. Results are estimates — see the disclaimer for what that means before you rely on a figure.
Every tool in this collection
- Australian financial year calculatorSee which financial year a date falls in, and how many days remain in the current year.
- Australian income tax calculatorEstimate income tax, LITO, Medicare and optional HELP from taxable income for 2026–27, including foreign resident rates.
- PAYG withholding estimatorEstimate Scale 1 or Scale 2 PAYG withheld from a resident salary in 2026–27, depending on whether the tax-free threshold is claimed.
- Medicare levy calculatorEstimate the 2% Medicare levy with the 2026–27 single or family low-income reduction and per-child increments.
- Tax rate comparisonCompare tax, Medicare and take-home on two resident salaries for 2026–27.