You may qualify for an exemption from paying the Medicare levy if you were in any of the following three exemption categories at any time in 2017–18. These categories are:
If you do not fit into one of the exemption categories, go to Medicare levy surcharge.
For the Medicare levy exemption (but not the reduction), dependant means an Australian resident you maintained who was:
- your spouse
- your child under 21 years old, or
- your child, 21 to 24 years old, who was receiving full-time education at a school, college or university and whose adjusted taxable income for the period you maintained the child was less than the total of $282 plus $28.92 for each week you maintained them.
If the parents of a child lived separately and apart for all or part of the income year and the child was a dependant of each of them, the child is treated as an equal dependant of each parent (irrespective of the number of days the child was in each parent's care). However, where a parent receives FTB Part A for the child, including receiving only the rental assistance component, the child is a dependant of that parent for the number of days the child was in their care.