HECS-HELP Repayment Calculator
Your taxable income plus reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions and net investment losses — not just your salary.
Annual HELP repayment
$820.80
Effective repayment rate
1.09%
Monthly repayment
$68.40
Fortnightly repayment
$31.57
On a repayment income of $75,000, your compulsory HELP repayment is $820.80 a year — an effective rate of 1.09% — typically withheld from your pay in instalments of around $31.57 a fortnight.
Quick answer
Your compulsory HECS-HELP repayment is calculated on your repayment income — not just your salary — using marginal rates from 0% below $69,528 up to a flat 10% above $186,050. On $75,000 repayment income, the compulsory repayment is $820.80 a year, an effective rate of about 1.09%, usually withheld from your pay automatically.
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Browse Tax & GSTHow it works
If you have a HECS-HELP (or other study and training support) loan, you make a compulsory repayment once your repayment income for the year reaches $69,528. Effective 1 July 2025, the system changed from a single rate applying to your whole income to a marginal system — the same style of calculation used for income tax, where each extra dollar you earn is charged at the rate for the band it falls into, not the rate for your whole income.
The FY2026-27 repayment bands are:
| Repayment income | Repayment rate |
|---|---|
| $0 – $69,528 | 0% (no repayment) |
| $69,528 – $129,718 | 15% of the amount above $69,528 |
| $129,718 – $186,050 | $9,028 plus 17% of the amount above $129,718 |
| $186,050 and above | 10% of your entire repayment income |
The first three bands work marginally: you only pay the higher rate on the slice of income inside that band, not on your whole repayment income. The top band is different — once your repayment income reaches $186,050, the calculation switches to a flat 10% of the entire amount rather than adding a further marginal step. It’s a simpler safeguard-style calculation for higher incomes, and at the point where it kicks in it lands close to what continuing the marginal pattern would have produced anyway.
Repayment income is not the same as your salary. It’s calculated as:
- Taxable income, plus
- Total net investment loss (including negatively geared rental property losses), plus
- Reportable fringe benefits, plus
- Reportable super contributions (salary-sacrificed super above the compulsory rate), plus
- Exempt foreign employment income
Because of these add-backs, two people with the same salary can have different repayment incomes — and someone with a large negatively-geared loss on paper can still owe a compulsory repayment even if their taxable income looks modest.
For most employees, you don’t need to do anything to trigger this. When you start a job, you declare your HELP debt on your Tax File Number declaration (or through Single Touch Payroll), and your employer automatically withholds an extra amount from each pay on top of your normal PAYG income tax withholding, based on your expected annual income. Your actual compulsory repayment is only calculated precisely when you lodge your tax return for the year, using your real full-year repayment income — so the amount withheld during the year is an estimate that gets reconciled at tax time, not a final figure.
Worked example
Mia is a graduate working in Newcastle with a repayment income of $75,000 for the year (her salary, plus a small amount of reportable fringe benefits from a work car).
Step 1 — find the band. $75,000 sits between $69,528 and $129,718, so it falls entirely inside the second band (15%). It doesn’t reach the $129,718 threshold for the third band.
Step 2 — apply the formula for that band. The second band’s formula is:
Repayment = $0 (band base) + (repayment income − $69,528) × 15%Step 3 — do the arithmetic.
$75,000 − $69,528 = $5,472 (the amount inside the 15% band)
$5,472 × 15% = $820.80 (compulsory repayment for the year)Mia’s compulsory HECS-HELP repayment for the year is $820.80 — an effective rate of about 1.09% of her total repayment income, even though her marginal rate on that last dollar is 15%. Spread across the year, that’s roughly $68.40 a month or $31.57 a fortnight, though in practice her employer withholds an estimated amount from each pay rather than one lump sum.
| Band | Repayment income range | Rate | Portion of Mia’s $75,000 in this band | Repayment from this band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $0 – $69,528 | 0% | $69,528 | $0.00 |
| 2 | $69,528 – $129,718 | 15% | $5,472 | $820.80 |
| 3 | $129,718 – $186,050 | 17% | $0 (not reached) | $0.00 |
| 4 | $186,050 and above | 10% (flat) | $0 (not reached) | $0.00 |
| Total | $75,000 | $820.80 |
Frequently asked questions
What counts as repayment income for HECS-HELP?
Repayment income is broader than salary. It's your taxable income plus reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, total net investment losses (including negatively geared rental losses) and exempt foreign income. Because of these add-backs, some people can owe a compulsory HELP repayment even in a year their taxable income alone looks quite low.
Is HECS-HELP repayment taken out of my pay automatically?
Usually, yes. When you start a job you declare your HELP debt on your Tax File Number declaration, and your employer withholds an extra amount from each pay on top of normal PAYG tax, based on your expected income. Your exact compulsory repayment is only finalised when you lodge your tax return.
Do I have to make a repayment if my income is below $69,528?
No. Below the $69,528 repayment income threshold, the compulsory repayment rate is 0%, so nothing is deducted regardless of your outstanding HELP debt balance. You can still make voluntary repayments at any income level if you'd like to pay the debt down faster, but the ATO won't require one.
Why doesn't the amount withheld from my pay match my actual compulsory repayment?
Payroll withholding is only an estimate, spread evenly across the year based on your expected annual income at each pay run. Your real compulsory repayment is calculated precisely from your actual full-year repayment income when you lodge your tax return, so you may owe a bit more or get a small amount back.
What happens once my repayment income goes above $186,050?
Above $186,050, the compulsory repayment switches to a flat 10% of your entire repayment income, rather than a further marginal step. This flat-rate top band acts as a safeguard cap — at this income level it lands close to what continuing the marginal pattern would produce anyway, just calculated more simply.
What happens if I earn just over a repayment threshold?
Not much extra — the system is marginal, just like income tax. Only the portion of your repayment income above a threshold is taxed at that band's higher rate; the portion below it keeps being calculated at the lower rate. So crossing a threshold by $1 adds only a few cents, not a jump to the whole new rate.
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Written and verified by Nirbhay Tripathi
Last updated 18 August 2026
All rates on this page are verified againstATO — Study and training loan repayment thresholds and rates, Study Assist — Loan repaymentson 18 August 2026. See our methodology for the full update calendar.