HELP repayment in 2026-27: thresholds, marginal rates and examples

Rates checked 1 November 2026 · Go Home Early

Study and training loans (HELP, VET Student Loan and several smaller schemes) are repaid through your tax return once your income passes a threshold. Until 2024-25 the repayment was a single percentage of your whole repayment income, and that percentage stepped up in small increments as income rose. From 2025-26 the repayment is worked out only on the income above a threshold. This guide sets out the 2026-27 table, explains what counts as repayment income, and works through examples that match the pay calculator.

1. The 2026-27 table

The ATO publishes the minimum repayment income and rates each year. For 2026-27:

Below $69,528 you repay nothing. Between $69,528 and $129,717 you repay 15 cents for each dollar over $69,528. Above that, the rate on each extra dollar is 17 cents until $186,050. From $186,051 the repayment is 10% of the whole repayment income, not just the part above the threshold. Because $9,028 plus 17 cents for each dollar over $129,717 is almost the same as 10% of $186,050, there is no sudden jump at that point. The repayment at $186,050 is $18,604.61 and at $186,051 it is $18,605.10.

2. What counts as repayment income

Repayment income is more than taxable income. The ATO lists the amounts that are added together:

• taxable income (excluding any assessable First Home Super Saver released amounts)
• reportable fringe benefits
• total net investment loss, including net rental losses
• reportable super contributions
• exempt foreign employment income

The calculators on this site use taxable income only, which is the salary you enter. If you salary sacrifice into super or have a rental loss, your real repayment income is higher and so is your repayment.

3. How to work out your repayment

1. Add up your repayment income for the year (section 2).
2. Find the band in the table. If you are at or below $69,528, the repayment is nil.
3. In the second band, subtract $69,528 and take 15% of the result. For $100,000: $100,000 minus $69,528 is $30,472, and 15% of that is $4,570.80.
4. In the third band, subtract $129,717, take 17% of the result, and add $9,028. For $150,000: $150,000 minus $129,717 is $20,283, 17% of that plus $9,028 is $12,476.11.
5. Above $186,050, take 10% of the whole repayment income.

The table gives the same result for every kind of study and training loan. The ATO says all loan types share the same minimum repayment income and rates, and if you have more than one type, your compulsory repayments pay them off in this order: HELP, VET Student Loan, Student Financial Supplement Scheme, Student Start-up Loan, ABSTUDY Student Start-up Loan, then Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans.

4. Repayments at different incomes

The repayment is a charge in your tax assessment. It is separate from income tax and the Medicare levy, and it reduces what you keep after tax. In the take-home pay figures on this site it is shown as its own line.

5. What HELP does to take-home pay

The repayment comes on top of income tax and the Medicare levy. The table shows the effect on a yearly take-home figure, with the monthly difference worked out by dividing the repayment by 12. These use the pay calculator logic: salary is taxable income, with the tax-free threshold, no other deductions.

At $70,000 the salary is just over the minimum repayment income, so the repayment is small. At $150,000 the repayment is in the $9,028 plus 17 cents band and costs $12,476 a year. Pay slips show only the part that the withholding tables estimate. The balance is settled when you lodge your return.

6. The ATO's worked examples

The ATO page for 2026-27 includes examples. This site checks its own calculation against all three:

Christina's repayment income of $86,380 is above $69,528 and below $129,717, so she repays 15 cents on the $16,852 over the threshold. Barry's $137,064 is in the third band, so he repays $9,028 plus 17 cents on the $7,347 over $129,717. Priya's $254,780 is above $186,050, so she repays 10% of all of it.

7. The old method and the new one

For 2024-25 and earlier, one percentage applied to the whole repayment income. The ATO's own example for 2024-25 is a person with a repayment income of $99,736. That fell in the 5.5% band, so the repayment was $5,485.48. The 2026-27 table is not the same table with the same thresholds, so the two figures are not an exact before-and-after comparison. Applied to the same $99,736, the 2026-27 rules give $4,531.20. The point is how the new method behaves: each extra dollar earned raises the repayment by 15 or 17 cents at most, instead of one threshold pushing the rate up on every dollar you have earned.

8. HELP and your pay

Employers add a study and training loan amount to the tax they withhold, using Schedule 8 of the withholding instrument. If you claim the tax-free threshold, the table starts adding an amount once weekly earnings reach $1,337. If you do not claim it, the starting point is $987 a week. Your actual repayment is worked out on your tax return, so the amount withheld across the year can be higher or lower than what you owe.

Voluntary repayments, indexation of the debt and the loan balance are not part of this guide. They do not change the compulsory repayment worked out here.

Sources

• ATO: Study and training loan minimum repayment income and rates (Table 1: 2026-27, and Examples 1 to 4)
• Taxation Administration (Withholding Schedules) Instrument 2026, Schedule 8
• Every rate used, with its source and check date: Sources and rates

This calculator is general information, not tax, legal or financial advice. It uses the legislation and official pages listed on the Sources page, and your payslip, award, agreement or tax return may differ. Rates as at 1 November 2026.

Written and checked against the legislation by the operator, who has run payroll for a small team firsthand. About: /au/about/