Tax Withheld Calculator (PAYG) FY2026-27

Your employer takes the gross pay for the period, converts it to a weekly equivalent, and applies the coefficient formula from the ATO's Schedule 1 statement of formulas for FY2026-27 — the same arithmetic this page runs. What comes out depends on the pay period, whether you claim the tax-free threshold from this payer, whether you have a study loan, and any Medicare levy exemption. As a worked example: on $4,000 a fortnight with the tax-free threshold claimed and no study loan, the FY2026-27 formulas withhold $918 per fortnight — the figure this page loads with — which is $23,868 across a full year of 26 pays. Under the same settings nothing is withheld at all until weekly pay reaches $365, because the scale's first bands produce zero below that point. Every figure here is computed from the published coefficients, which are reproduced in full further down the page.

With the tax-free threshold claimed and no study loan, the FY2026-27 weekly formulas withhold $138 from a $1,000 weekly pay, $299 from $1,500, and $459 from $2,000; at the lower end, $800 a week has $83 withheld. Without the tax-free threshold — typically a second job — the same pays are withheld much harder: $249 on $1,000 and $569 on $2,000 a week, because that scale starts at the first dollar. Each amount is the whole-dollar figure Schedule 1's coefficients produce for that exact pay — computed by the same engine as the calculator above, so entering any of these pays reproduces it. A study loan adds a separate Schedule 8 component on top (tick the study loan box), and the salary-based table below shows the weekly, fortnightly and monthly amounts side by side.

With the tax-free threshold claimed and no study loan, the FY2026-27 fortnightly formulas withhold $276 from a $2,000 fortnightly pay, $438 from $2,500, and $598 from $3,000; the $4,000 pay this page loads with has $918 withheld. On the no-threshold scale — a second job — $3,000 a fortnight is withheld $818 instead. The schedules work a fortnightly pay out from its weekly equivalent, so the result is close to, but through rounding not always exactly, double the weekly amount on half the pay — every figure above comes from the same engine as the calculator, so entering any of these pays reproduces it. The salary table further down shows weekly, fortnightly and monthly amounts side by side for common annual salaries.

No — withholding is a per-pay estimate, not your final tax. The schedules are built so that an even pay across a full year, with no other income or deductions, lands close to the annual bill; your actual liability is only settled when the ATO assesses your tax return after 30 June. The two diverge whenever real life differs from that assumption: deductions you claim, investment or interest income that had nothing withheld, a pay rise or a gap partway through the year, multiple jobs, or offsets the schedule doesn't know about. If too much was taken out during the year, the difference comes back as a refund; too little becomes an amount owing. To see that year-end position rather than the per-pay amount, use the tax return calculator, which assesses income, deductions and the total withheld the way a notice of assessment does.

Because the tax-free threshold can only be claimed with one payer at a time — usually the job that pays you the most. Every other employer must withhold under the no-threshold scale, which starts at the first dollar rather than letting the first slice of each pay through untaxed, so the same gross pay produces a visibly larger deduction. Untick "I claim the tax-free threshold" above to see that scale. It isn't extra tax overall: your annual assessment adds all jobs together and applies one tax-free threshold to the combined income, so the heavier withholding on the second job simply pre-pays tax that would otherwise fall due as a bill at tax time. If the second job is small, the no-threshold scale often over-withholds, and the excess comes back as a refund when you lodge.

If you told your employer you have a study or training support loan (on your TFN declaration), an extra component from Schedule 8 is added on top of the ordinary Schedule 1 amount. Under the FY2026-27 tables it only starts once pay is high enough — with the tax-free threshold claimed, nothing is added until weekly pay reaches $1,340 — and it is worked out and rounded separately, then added, which is the method the ATO's own Schedule 8 examples demonstrate. Tick the study loan box above to include it. The component isn't the actual repayment: your compulsory repayment is calculated at assessment from your repayment income for the whole year, and the withheld amounts just pre-fund it. The HECS repayment calculator shows that year-end calculation, including the marginal repayment system that applies from 2025-26.

For Australian residents, yes — the standard tax-free-threshold scale folds the 2% Medicare levy into its coefficients, including a shaded phase-in at lower incomes, so there is no separate Medicare line on a payslip. If you qualify for a levy exemption and lodge a Medicare levy variation declaration, your employer switches to the half-exemption or full-exemption scale — both are options above. Foreign residents aren't withheld for the levy at all. One note on the Medicare low-income threshold: the FY2026-27 withholding scales embed $28,011 a year, because the ATO bakes announced parameters into the schedules ahead of enactment. That figure is now law — Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering an Efficient and Trusted Tax System) Act 2026 (No. 58, 2026), Schedule 5 — so the year-end assessment on our other calculators uses the same $28,011, and the two no longer disagree at low incomes. This page follows the schedule, as payslips do.

A dollar or so of difference is normal. The ATO publishes two accepted ways to add a study-loan component — combined scales, or a separately rounded component added to the base amount — and says withholding calculated either way is accepted; this page uses the separately-rounded method demonstrated in Schedule 8's own examples, while your payroll software may use the other. Rounding to whole dollars at slightly different points produces small gaps. Bigger differences usually mean the pay isn't the plain gross this page models: allowances with their own withholding treatment, salary-sacrifice deductions (enter the gross after sacrifice), bonuses and back pay (withheld under Schedule 5, not modelled here), an upwards variation you've requested, or extra voluntary withholding. If the gap is large and none of those apply, check that the tax-free threshold and study-loan settings above match what you actually declared to your employer.

Enter the gross taxable earnings for one pay period — the "gross" or "taxable earnings" line on your payslip, before tax comes out, cents included. That's ordinary salary or wages plus overtime, casual loading and most allowances that are taxed normally. Enter the figure after any salary-sacrifice deductions, because sacrificed amounts leave the withholding calculation entirely — and don't include reimbursements, which aren't income. Pick the period that matches how you're actually paid: the schedules convert everything to a weekly equivalent, so a genuine monthly salary should go in as the monthly figure rather than an annual amount divided by twelve — the monthly conversion even has its own 33-cent quirk the ATO prescribes, which this page reproduces. If you'd rather start from an annual salary, the tax calculator's payslip view works from yearly pay.