Changelog

Every rate, threshold and calculator change on this site, with the government page used to confirm it. Anything announced but not yet passed by Parliament sits in the panel below and stays out of the calculators.

Announced but not enacted

The measures below have been publicly announced (mostly in the 2026-27 Federal Budget, handed down 12 May 2026). None have passed Parliament. Some other Australian calculators are already applying them. CheckTax does not.

1. Stage 3 third tranche: $18,201 to $45,000 bracket drops from 15c to 14c on 1 July 2027.
2. $250 Working Australians Tax Offset, from the 2027-28 income year.
3. Replacement of the 50% CGT discount for individuals from 1 July 2027. CPI-indexed cost base plus a 30% minimum tax on the real gain. New-build property investors can elect either method.
4. Negative gearing ring-fence from 1 July 2027. Losses on established residential property bought after 12 May 2026 can only offset other property income. New builds and earlier holdings are grandfathered.
5. Three-phase wind-back of the EV FBT exemption, starting 1 April 2027. Full exemption ends 1 April 2029 for new leases. Existing novated leases keep their treatment.
6. 2026-27 Medicare levy threshold uplift. Single low-income threshold $27,222 lifts to $28,011. The calculator stays on the legislated $27,222 and $34,027 figures.

Each item is also called out inside the relevant calculator’s methodology panel. The list is re-checked each time Parliament sits.

4 July 2026

Deductions on the income tax calculator

The income tax calculator now has a Deductions panel: itemised work-related expenses, car kilometres on the cents-per-km method, working-from-home hours on the fixed rate, gifts to DGR charities, and other deductions such as tax agent fees. Every rate was verified against its primary source on 4 July 2026: 88c/km for 2024-25 and 2025-26 with the 5,000 km per-car cap (ATO QC 107246), 91c/km for 2026-27 (89c base plus a 2c one-off uplift, F2026L00785), the 70c/hr WFH fixed rate with cents disregarded (ATO fixed rate method, PCG 2024/2), and the $2 DGR gift rules (ATO QC 72185).

Deductions reduce taxable income, so the Medicare levy, HECS repayment and MLS figures update with them, and the breakdown shows the exact dollar amount the deductions cut from the year's tax bill. The WFH deduction floors the cents exactly as myTax does: 843 hours at 70c claims $590, matching the ATO's own worked example. Regression check: $85,000 for 2025-26 with a $1,000 donation lands at $67,332 take-home, which is the $67,012 baseline plus the $320 saving at that income.

Same release, one accounting correction: the take-home figure is now reported on a cash basis. Previously the opt-in $1,000 instant-deduction toggle lowered the displayed take-home by the deduction amount itself, as though the $1,000 had been spent. A no-receipts deduction costs nothing, so the correct effect is a higher net. With no deductions entered the output is unchanged to the dollar; the published regression baselines ($67,012 for $85,000 in 2025-26 and $63,612 for $80,000 in 2024-25) still hold.

Termination pay: the years field now shows its working

Several readers with long service thought the years-of-service input was broken because the result stopped changing past 10 years. That's the law, not a bug: the Fair Work Act s.119 redundancy scale peaks at 16 weeks (9 years), then drops to a flat 12 weeks for everyone with 10 or more years, because long service leave takes over. The calculator now says so: the breakdown names the weeks and the years they came from, shows your tax-free limit at your exact years, and a note explains the 10-year plateau instead of leaving you wondering whether your input registered.

Faster, more app-like across the site

Pages now start loading the moment you hover or touch a link, so moving between calculators feels close to instant on supported browsers. Page-to-page navigation gets a subtle cross-fade (switched off automatically if your device asks for reduced motion). On phones, the share button opens your native share sheet instead of only copying a link. And you can now add CheckTax to your home screen or desktop as an app. None of this changes any figure, and the rates and sources are untouched.

Income percentile on the income tax calculator

After you calculate, a chip now shows where your taxable income sits against the ATO Taxation statistics 2023-24 percentile distribution (Individuals Table 16A, published 25 June 2026, the latest available). The comparison population is taxable individuals, people who actually paid net tax, so the median sits at $70,664 to $71,795, and the wording says "Australians who paid income tax" rather than "all Australians". A $85,000 taxable income is higher than about 60% of that population.

3 July 2026

Annual 1 July rate review, all calculators

Every rate constant on the site was re-verified against its primary government source for the new financial year: ATO resident brackets (the 2026-27 15c first bracket, already live since Budget week), Medicare levy thresholds, Medicare Levy Surcharge tiers, study-loan thresholds and indexation, Super Guarantee, concessional contributions cap, ETP and genuine-redundancy caps, the cents-per-kilometre rate, luxury car tax thresholds, and all 8 state and territory duty scales.

NSW transfer duty reindexed for 2026-27

Revenue NSW published the CPI-indexed 2026-27 scale and the calculator now uses it. Bracket boundaries moved to $18,000 / $38,000 / $103,000 / $387,000 / $1,290,000 with cumulative duty of $225 / $525 / $1,662 / $11,602 / $52,237 at those points. A $750,000 established home is now $27,937 (was $28,162 on the 2025-26 scale). The $800,000 first-home exemption and $1,000,000 taper are unchanged; a $900,000 first-home buyer now pays $19,594 under the exact s.78A(2) formula. The premium duty threshold is $3,870,000.

Medicare Levy Surcharge tiers are now year-aware

The ATO published the 2026-27 MLS tiers: singles $105,000 / $123,000 / $164,000, families $210,000 / $246,000 / $328,000. The income tax, salary comparison and sole trader calculators now apply the correct tier table for whichever year you select, including the exact 2024-25 tiers ($97,000 / $113,000 / $151,000 singles) for late lodgers. Previously the 2025-26 table was applied to every year.

2026-27 is now the default year

The income tax, salary comparison, sole trader, CGT and termination pay calculators default to FY 2026-27, with 2025-26 and 2024-25 still selectable for tax returns. The novated lease and investment property calculators moved to the 2026-27 brackets, and the novated lease EV exemption test uses the 2026-27 fuel-efficient luxury car tax threshold of $91,661. The salary-sacrifice planner applies the $32,500 concessional cap for 2026-27.

Correction: 2024-25 concessional cap

The salary-sacrifice planner and the super calculator were applying a $27,500 concessional cap to FY 2024-25 selections. The cap moved to $30,000 on 1 July 2024; $27,500 ended on 30 June 2024. Corrected against the ATO contributions caps page. The 2025-26 and 2026-27 figures were always correct.

Still waiting on Parliament or the ATO

Checked at this review and deliberately held out of the calculators, each with a note where it matters: the Medicare levy low-income threshold rise to $28,011 (announced for 2025-26, not yet law; the ATO displays it with a not-yet-law warning); the 2026-27 HELP repayment thresholds (indexed to average weekly earnings, not yet published by the ATO, so the 2026-27 selection uses the 2025-26 bands); WA first home owner rate increases (bill before Parliament); and QLD home concession changes for transactions from 1 August 2026 (detail published only after Royal Assent).

27 May 2026

Warehouse and factory worker tax deduction guide

New guide at /occupations/warehouse-and-factory-workers/. Covers what warehouse, factory, distribution-centre, food-processing and cold-store workers can and can’t claim for FY 2025-26. Sourced from the ATO Factory Workers guide (QC51225), its four deduction subpages, the Income and Allowances and Record Keeping subpages, and TD 2025/4 for overtime meal rates.

Includes a worked $65,000 example showing $1,200 of legitimate deductions saves $402 in tax and Medicare (net cost $798). The denied-claims list covers the cold-places allowance trap, plain black pants, initial forklift licence cost, employer-supplied PPE, and food during normal working hours.

Sole Trader / ABN tax calculator

New calculator at /sole-trader-tax-calculator/. Takes gross business income and deductible expenses and computes individual marginal tax using the same locked module that powers the income tax calculator.

The 16% Small Business Income Tax Offset is applied to the proportion of basic tax payable from net small business income, capped at $1,000 per year and zero at $5m aggregated turnover. Verified against ATO QC49023. Personal super contributions are excluded from the SBITO base.

The GST flag fires at $75,000 gross income (ATO QC22369). The PAYG instalment flag fires when all three triggers are met: instalment income at or above $4,000, tax payable at or above $1,000, estimated tax at or above $500 (ATO QC45456). Concessional super deductions are capped at $30,000 for 2024-25 and 2025-26 and $32,500 for 2026-27.

Regression check: $85,000 net business income for 2025-26 lands at $68,012 take-home, which is the PAYG-salary baseline of $67,012 plus the $1,000 SBITO.

Click-only calculators

Every calculator now updates only when you click Calculate or press Enter on a number field. Earlier the output rerendered while you were still typing, which made interim figures appear under the source-verified badge. The locked tax math, rates and sources did not change.

26 May 2026

Salary comparator and after-tax landing pages

The new /compare/ page takes two salaries side by side and shows the net take-home difference for FY 2025-26. Shareable URLs: /compare/?a=80000&b=95000 fills the fields from the link.

Five pre-filled after-tax landing pages also went live: $80k, $100k, $120k, $150k and $200k. Each one shows the full FY 2025-26 breakdown (PAYG, Medicare levy, LITO, super), every figure traceable back to the ATO bracket page.

24 May 2026

Federal Budget 2026-27

The 2026-27 Federal Budget was handed down 12 May 2026. The measures with a legislated basis went live in the calculators. The rest are in the panel above.

The Stage 3 second-phase cut for FY 2026-27 is active: the $18,201 to $45,000 bracket drops from 16c to 15c, per the Treasury Laws Amendment (More Cost of Living Relief) Act 2025 (Royal Assent 3 July 2025, effective 1 July 2026). New cumulative bases: $4,020 at $45,000; $31,020 at $135,000; $51,370 at $190,000.

The proposed $1,000 instant work-related deduction is in the calculator as an opt-in advanced toggle, default off. It will not inflate a refund unless switched on.

Also active for FY 2026-27: the concessional super cap moves to $32,500, and the CGT brackets re-align to the post-Stage 3 second-phase scale. A new FAQ entry on the stamp duty calculator covers Queensland’s full transfer-duty exemption for first-home buyers signing contracts on new builds from 1 May 2025 (no price cap).

Termination Pay calculator

New calculator at /termination-pay-calculator/, covering resignation, retirement and genuine redundancy.

Uses the NES weeks scale (4 to 16 weeks of redundancy pay, dropping to 12 weeks at 10 or more years of service) and the NES notice scale (1 to 4 weeks, plus a 1-week uplift for employees aged 45 or older with 2 or more years of service).

For tax: ATO Schedule 7 covers unused annual and long-service leave at termination (marginal rates on resignation and retirement; flat 32% on redundancy). ATO Schedule 11 covers Employment Termination Payments, with the ETP cap and the whole-of-income cap, and concessional 17%, 32% or 47% above-cap rates depending on preservation age (60 for anyone born 1 July 1964 or later). For FY 2025-26 the redundancy tax-free base is $13,100 plus $6,552 per completed year of service.

Out of scope: industry-award entitlements above NES minimums, pre-1993 leave components, and invalidity or death-benefit ETPs.

How we verify

1. No figure ships from memory. Every rate, threshold and bracket is re-read from the primary government page in the same session it goes live.
2. Announcements are not law. Anything announced but not passed sits in the panel above.
3. Saved test cases reproduce every published figure before every release.

Cadence

1. 1 July each year: full financial-year rollover. Default FY selector flips, every rate is re-verified, test cases are re-run.
2. May Budget and December MYEFO: each new measure is classified as legislated (active now) or only announced (listed above, not applied).
3. Each Parliament sitting: the announced-not-enacted list is re-checked against the federal legislation register.
4. Reader emails: any reported issue gets a same-day re-check.