Australia Pay Calculator 2026-27 – Take-Home Pay, Tax, Medicare and Super

Where each $100 of your pay goes

Averages hide the story — this bar splits your actual salary into what you keep, what goes in income tax, and what goes to Medicare, the surcharge and HELP. It redraws live as you change the figures above.

Your pay, cycle by cycle

Most Australians are paid fortnightly, but budgets run weekly and monthly too. The same year of pay, sliced four ways.

Pay, from the other angles

Gross-up a target pay packet, check a single paycheck, or leave Australia out of it entirely.

How it works

Four layers sit between your salary and your bank account — plus one that never touches it.

The math behind the default example

Two things most pay calculators get wrong

A levy that phases in instead of switching on, and a student-debt system that was rebuilt in 2025.

The 2026-27 rates this calculator uses

Resident rates for the year 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, as published by the ATO.

Income tax brackets

Offsets, levies and super

Worked examples at three salaries, on the 2026-27 rates

The same brackets, three different salaries, three different effective rates. Every figure below follows the page’s own rate table.

At $80,000, the calculator gives take-home pay of $63,880 a year, or $2,456.92 a fortnight, with total deductions of $16,120, an effective deduction rate of 20.15 percent, income tax payable of $14,520, and a super guarantee of $9,600 paid by the employer on top of pay. The bracket maths behind the $14,520 is straightforward: nothing on the first $18,200, 15 percent on the $26,800 up to $45,000, which is $4,020, and 30 percent on the $35,000 from $45,000 to $80,000, which is $10,500, for a total of $14,520 before offsets. No Low Income Tax Offset applies at this income, because LITO phases out completely by $66,667, and the Medicare levy at 2 percent, with the shade-in already passed at this income, is inside the total deductions alongside any surcharge and HELP repayment, which are zero on the default settings.

At the page’s default of $95,000, take-home pay is $74,080 a year, or $2,849.23 a fortnight, with total deductions of $20,920, an effective deduction rate of 22.02 percent, income tax payable of $19,020, and a super guarantee of $11,400. The bracket maths is the same shape: $4,020 on the band to $45,000, plus 30 percent on the $50,000 from $45,000 to $95,000, which is $15,000, for $19,020 in total. The $15,000 salary increase from $80,000 to $95,000 adds $4,500 of income tax, exactly 30 percent of the increase, because the whole increase sits in the 30 percent band, and it adds $300 of Medicare levy beyond the tax, for a total deduction increase of $4,800 and a take-home increase of $10,200. The marginal rate on the increase is 30 percent for tax, and higher for total deductions, while the effective deduction rate rises only from 20.15 to 22.02 percent, because the lower bands did not change.

At $60,000, the bracket maths gives $4,020 on the band to $45,000 plus 30 percent on the $15,000 above it, which is $4,500, for $8,520 before offsets. The Low Income Tax Offset at this income is $100, calculated from the page’s LITO taper, so income tax payable is $8,420, and with the Medicare levy of $1,200 at 2 percent, total deductions are $9,620 and take-home pay is $50,380. The lesson of the three rows is not any single figure but the pattern: the marginal rate on the next dollar is 30 percent across this whole range, because all three salaries sit in the 30 percent band, while the effective deduction rate climbs gently from 16.03 to 22.02 percent, because the tax-free threshold and the lower bands shelter a shrinking share as salary rises. A raise inside the 30 percent band costs 30 cents of tax per dollar, plus levies, and keeps roughly 70 cents before levies, whatever the salary, which is the figure to use when judging an offer inside this band.

The Medicare levy shade-in, and why it is not 2 percent from dollar one

Most calculators get this wrong. The levy phases in, and the phase-in is worth understanding because it changes low incomes most.

The Medicare levy is 2 percent of taxable income for most taxpayers, but it does not switch on at 2 percent from the first dollar. Below $28,011 of taxable income in 2026-27, no levy is payable at all. Above that threshold, the levy shades in at 10 percent of the excess over the threshold, until it reaches the full 2 percent, which happens at about $35,013 of taxable income. Between $28,011 and $35,013, therefore, the levy is less than 2 percent, and it rises gradually rather than jumping. A taxpayer with $30,000 of taxable income, for example, pays 10 percent of the $1,989 excess over $28,011, which is $198.90, not 2 percent of $30,000, which would be $600. The difference, $401.10, is the value of the shade-in at that income, and it is largest, proportionally, for the lowest incomes in the phase-in range.

The shade-in exists for the same reason tax-free thresholds exist: to avoid a cliff where one extra dollar of income triggers hundreds of dollars of extra levy. Without it, a taxpayer crossing the threshold would lose 2 percent of their whole income in a single step, which would make earning the next dollar actively harmful near the threshold. With it, the extra dollar costs 10 cents of levy, which is higher than the 2 percent rate but far lower than the cliff, and the levy then settles to 2 percent once income is comfortably above the threshold. The calculator on this page models the shade-in, as its “two things” section notes, and a calculator that charges a flat 2 percent from the threshold will overstate the levy for every taxpayer between $28,011 and $35,013, and understate their take-home by the same amount.

Low-income thresholds differ by household type, and this calculator models a single taxpayer, as its disclaimer states. Seniors, pensioners, and families face different Medicare levy thresholds, and the family thresholds scale with the number of children, under rules that a single-person calculator cannot capture. A single figure for the shade-in is therefore correct for the modelled case and incomplete for others, and a family or senior taxpayer should check the ATO’s thresholds for their category rather than applying the single thresholds here. The principle is the same in every category — a threshold, a shade-in at 10 percent of the excess, then the full 2 percent — but the numbers move, and the numbers are what determine the levy.

The Medicare Levy Surcharge is a separate charge, and it should not be confused with the levy itself. The surcharge applies only to taxpayers without appropriate hospital cover, and for a single taxpayer in 2026-27 it is 1 percent over $105,000, 1.25 percent over $123,000, and 1.5 percent over $164,000, on the surcharge income that the ATO defines. It is an incentive to hold hospital cover, not a general health tax, and it is avoided entirely by holding cover that meets the ATO’s requirements, regardless of income. A taxpayer above $105,000 without cover pays both the 2 percent levy and the surcharge, while the same taxpayer with cover pays only the levy, which is why the surcharge is often cheaper to avoid than to pay, depending on the cost of cover. The calculator includes the surcharge where its hospital-cover toggle says it applies, and the toggle, not the income alone, determines whether it is charged.

HELP repayments: the marginal system that replaced the cliff

Since 2025, HELP is charged on the dollar above a threshold, not on the whole income. That change is worth more than it looks.

HELP, the Higher Education Loan Program debt, is repaid through the tax system once income passes a threshold, and the system was rebuilt in 2025 from a cliff to a marginal design. Under the old design, crossing a repayment threshold triggered a percentage of the whole income, so one extra dollar could cost hundreds of dollars of repayment in a single step. Under the current design, repayment starts at $69,528 in 2026-27 and is charged at 15 cents per dollar above the threshold up to $129,717, then $9,028 plus 17 cents per dollar above that up to $186,050, and then 10 percent of income above the top threshold, under the table on this page. The marginal design means an extra dollar above $69,528 costs 15 cents of repayment, not 15 percent of the whole income, and the cliff is gone.

The practical consequence is that HELP debt no longer creates a reason to avoid a raise near the threshold. Under the old system, a raise that crossed a threshold could reduce take-home pay, because the repayment jump exceeded the raise, and graduates near thresholds faced a genuine disincentive to earn more. Under the marginal system, a raise always increases take-home pay, because the repayment on the extra dollar is always a fraction of that dollar, and the fraction is at most 17 cents in the middle range. The repayment still reduces the gain — a $1,000 raise above $69,528 keeps $850 after HELP repayment, before tax and levies — but it never reverses it, and that guarantee is the point of the redesign. A graduate budgeting a raise should therefore count HELP at the marginal rate on the increase, not at the average rate on the whole income, because the average rate describes the past and the marginal rate prices the next dollar.

HELP repayment interacts with the other deductions in a specific order that the calculator follows: bracket tax first, less offsets, then the Medicare levy and surcharge, then HELP repayment, each computed on its own base. The bases differ — HELP uses repayment income, which includes items beyond taxable income, such as reportable fringe benefits and super contributions in some cases — so the HELP figure cannot be derived from taxable income alone where those items exist. The calculator on this page models salary income only, as its disclaimer states, so a graduate with reportable benefits or other income should treat its HELP figure as an approximation for the salary component, and check the ATO’s repayment calculator for the full repayment income. The direction is unaffected: marginal rates price increases, average rates describe totals, and the two should not be swapped.

Finally, HELP debt is indexed, not interest-bearing in the commercial sense, and its balance moves with indexation and repayments rather than with a market rate. That distinction matters for prioritising repayments: voluntary extra repayments reduce the balance and therefore future indexation, but they do not save commercial interest, because there is none, and the money used for a voluntary repayment is money not available for other goals. Whether to repay voluntarily is a personal decision involving the balance, the indexation rate, and competing uses of cash, and it is not answered by the repayment calculator, which prices compulsory repayments only. The calculator’s job is to show what the tax system will take. What to do beyond that is a financial decision, not a tax calculation.

Superannuation: the money that never touches your pay

Super guarantee is paid on top of salary, never deducted from it. Confusing the two understates total pay by 12 percent.

The super guarantee in 2026-27 is 12 percent of ordinary time earnings, paid by the employer on top of salary, into the employee’s super fund. On the default $95,000 salary it is $11,400 a year, and on $80,000 it is $9,600, in both cases 12 percent of salary, and in neither case deducted from take-home pay. Take-home pay on the default is $74,080, total deductions are $20,920, and super of $11,400 sits outside both figures: the employer’s total cost is $106,400, the employee receives $74,080 in cash and $11,400 in super, and the $20,920 of deductions is the gap between salary and cash. A comparison that treats super as a deduction understates the employee’s total remuneration by the full 12 percent, and a salary negotiation that trades salary for super at anything other than one-for-one misunderstands which side of the ledger super sits on.

Super contributions are taxed differently from salary, and that difference is part of their value. Employer super contributions are generally taxed at 15 percent inside the fund, up to caps and thresholds, rather than at the employee’s marginal rate, which for a taxpayer in the 30 percent band is a substantial saving, and which is why salary sacrifice into super — voluntarily contributing extra salary to super — can reduce tax while increasing retirement savings. The calculator on this page does not model salary sacrifice, as its disclaimer states, because it requires facts about existing contributions, caps, and fund details that a salary-only calculator cannot capture. The headline to carry away is the direction: super is concessionally taxed, salary is fully taxed, and moving dollars from salary to super, within caps, generally reduces tax now and increases retirement savings later, at the cost of locking the money away until preservation age.

Preservation and access complete the picture. Super is preserved until preservation age, which depends on date of birth and is 60 for most current workers, with limited early-release conditions for severe hardship, compassionate grounds, and terminal illness. That lock-in is the price of the tax concession, and it means super should not be counted as available cash for short-term goals, however large the balance grows. For retirement planning, the balance, the contribution rate, the investment return, and the time to preservation jointly determine the outcome, and the calculator’s super figure — 12 percent of salary, each year — is the contribution input to that longer calculation, not the outcome itself. A $95,000 salary contributes $11,400 a year, and over a working life that stream, invested, is the foundation of retirement income, but its final value depends on returns and time, which no pay calculator can state.

The checklist for an Australian pay packet, then, is five lines, not one. Salary, less bracket tax and offsets, less Medicare levy and surcharge, less HELP repayment where it applies, equals take-home pay, and super guarantee sits beside it, paid on top, as a sixth line that is not a deduction at all. On the default those lines are $95,000, $19,020 of income tax, $1,900 of Medicare levy at 2 percent, no surcharge and no HELP on the default settings, $74,080 of take-home, and $11,400 of super. Keeping those lines separate — tax, levy, repayment, take-home, super — prevents the two common errors: treating super as a deduction, and treating take-home pay as total remuneration. Total remuneration is salary plus super. Take-home pay is salary minus deductions. The two differ by $11,400 on the default, plus the deductions, and both figures are needed to describe the job honestly.

More pay and tax tools

Salary maths for Australia and beyond.