HECS-HELP Repayment Calculator (Australia)

From the 2025–26 income year, Australia changed how compulsory study loan repayments work. The old system took one percentage of your whole repayment income, so earning a dollar over a threshold could add hundreds to the bill. The new marginal system charges nothing up to $67,000 in 2025–26 ($69,528 in 2026–27), then 15c of each dollar above that, 17c above $125,000, and 10% of your whole repayment income once you pass $179,286.

This calculator applies those rules exactly as the ATO publishes them. Type your repayment income, or let it add up the five parts (taxable income, reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, net investment losses and exempt foreign employment income). It shows the repayment with the working, the share of your income, what the next dollar costs, a rough per-fortnight figure, and what the old 2024–25 rates would have taken from the same income.

Add your loan balance and it plans the payoff year by year: your pay rising, the thresholds rising, indexation added each 1 June, and any voluntary repayments. You get the year it is cleared, a balance chart and a table. It covers HELP, VET Student Loans, SSL, ABSTUDY SSL and AASL debts. It is general information, not financial advice, and runs entirely in your browser.

1. Choose the rules year: 2026–27 (this income year, the default) or 2025–26 (the tax return most people are lodging now).
2. Type your repayment income, or pick “Add it up for me” and fill in the parts from your income statement.
3. Type your study loan balance from myGov. The compulsory repayment, working and old-system comparison appear at once.
4. Under “Paying it off”, adjust the pay rise, threshold rise, indexation and any extra voluntary repayment a year.
5. Move along the balance chart for each year’s figures, or open the “Year-by-year table”.

• The ATO’s marginal thresholds and rates for 2025–26 and 2026–27, checked against the ATO’s own worked examples.
• Repayment income added up from its five parts, with a note on what each one is and where to find it.
• The working shown in full, plus effective rate, the cost of your next dollar and a per-fortnight estimate.
• Side-by-side comparison with the old 2024–25 percentage system, and a chart of both across incomes from $40,000 to $230,000.
• Payoff plan with your own pay rise, threshold rise, indexation rate and voluntary repayments.
• Shows how many years sooner voluntary repayments clear the debt and how much indexation they avoid.
• Balance chart you can explore with touch, mouse or arrow keys, and a year-by-year table.
• Every figure links to the ATO page it came from, with the date it was checked.

• Salary sacrifice into super lowers your taxable income but not your repayment income: it comes back in as a reportable super contribution.
• Indexation is added on 1 June to debt that has been unpaid for more than 11 months. A voluntary repayment made before then reduces the amount that gets indexed.
• Your employer withholds extra tax for the study loan through the year, but the real repayment is settled when you lodge. If too much was withheld, the difference comes back in your refund.
• Below the threshold nothing is due, yet indexation still grows the debt. The chart shows this clearly if your income is low.
• Debts that existed on 1 June 2025 were cut by 20%. Use the balance shown in myGov today, which already includes the cut.