Australian take-home pay, 2026-27
Three things come out of an Australian salary — income tax, the 2% Medicare levy and any HELP repayment — and one big thing does not: super. On $90,000 a year the take-home figure is $67,609, and your employer separately puts $10,800 into super on top of that.
Before tax. Australian payroll is usually weekly or fortnightly; every figure here is built from the annual amount and then divided.
Comes out of your pay before tax, so it lowers income tax and HELP. It does not lower the 12% your employer must pay on top.
The repayment is charged on income above $69,528 only, not on the whole salary.
Without cover and above $105,000, a surcharge of 1% to 1.5% is added to the Medicare levy.
| Line | Per year | Per fortnight |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salary | $90,000 | $3,462 |
| Income tax (after LITO) | −$17,520 | −$674 |
| Medicare levy (2%) | −$1,800 | −$69 |
| HELP / study loan repayment | −$3,071 | −$118 |
| Take-home pay | $67,609 | $2,600 |
| Super paid by employer (on top) | $10,800 | $415 |
Marginal rate on the next dollar: 47.0%. That already includes the Medicare levy and the HELP repayment, which is why it sits above the income tax rate alone. The super line is employer money — it is not part of take-home pay and cannot be spent this year.
With a HELP debt the same $90,000 leaves $67,609; without one, $70,680. The $3,071 gap is the compulsory loan repayment, charged only on income above $69,528.
What makes Australia different from every other page on this site
Super is not a deduction. At 12% of qualifying earnings, paid by the employer, it is the largest single amount of money attached to a job that never appears in take-home pay. A salary quoted as $90,000 "plus super" is worth $100,800 in total; one quoted $90,000 "including super" is worth $80,357 of salary plus the same super.
HELP is marginal. Since 2025–26 the repayment is not a percentage of your whole income. It is 15 cents per dollar above $69,528, then 9,028 plus 17 cents above $129,717, then a flat 10% above $186,050. That middle band is where most graduate salaries land, and it is where a naive "add 7% of income" estimate goes wrong.
No state income tax. State payroll tax is charged to the employer, not to you. The same salary in any state leaves the same amount — which is why this site has no state pages for Australia.
The resident scale, 2026-27
The 15% rate in this table is the 2026–27 rate. It was 16% in 2025–26 and is legislated to fall to 14% from 2027–28, so a calculator built on last year's table would be one point too high in the second bracket.
| Taxable income | Rate on this slice | Tax on this income |
|---|---|---|
| $0 – $18,200 | Nil | Nil |
| $18,201 – $45,000 | 15% | $0 plus 15% of the excess |
| $45,001 – $135,000 | 3% | $4,020 plus 3% of the excess |
| $135,001 – $190,000 | 37% | $31,020 plus 37% of the excess |
| $190,001 – and above | 45% | $51,370 plus 45% of the excess |
These rates exclude the 2% Medicare levy and the surcharge — the ATO publishes them that way, and every figure on this page adds them separately.
Medicare: two different charges, often confused
| Charge | Who pays | How much |
|---|---|---|
| Medicare levy | Everyone above $28,011 of taxable income | 2%, shaded in between $28,011 and $35,013 |
| Medicare levy surcharge | Only without appropriate private hospital cover, above $105,000 | 1%, 1.25% or 1.5% by tier, charged on taxable income |
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Common questions
Is the super figure in the calculator my money?
It is your money eventually, but not this year. It goes to a complying super fund in your name and is preserved until retirement (with limited access rules). It never passes through your bank account, so it is shown on its own line rather than added to take-home pay.
Do I need to pay the surcharge if I have extras cover?
"Extras" or general treatment cover does not count. The surcharge test is hospital cover with an excess of $750 or less for a single policy, or $1,500 or less for a family policy.
Why does the calculator ask about a HELP debt?
Because it changes the answer by thousands of dollars a year above the threshold, and the ATO's simple calculator leaves it out. The repayment is withheld from pay through PAYG but is only applied to your loan after you lodge a return.
What is not included?
Medicare levy low-income shade-in uses the published $28,011–$35,013 band; no page tier falls inside it, and the CPI-indexed 2026–27 band was not published at build time; Salary packaging and reportable fringe benefits (they raise income for MLS and HELP purposes); Deductions: work-related expenses, donations, private health rebate adjustments; Division 293 tax on concessional contributions above $250,000 — flagged in text, not deducted; Study loan balances, indexation and the 10% cap interaction with the loan balance.