Types of income

Warning:

This information may not apply to the current year. Check the content carefully to ensure it is applicable to your circumstances.

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Salary or wages

This section is about income from salary or wages from which tax was withheld. Income from salary or wages includes:

• salary and wages
• commissions
• bonuses
• income from part-time or casual work
• parental leave pay
• dad-and-partner pay
• amounts shown on an income statement/payment summary for lost salary or wages paid under   
  • an income protection policy
  • a sickness or accident insurance policy
  • a workers compensation scheme.

Allowances, earnings, tips, directors fees etc

This section is about payments of income from working. These include:

• allowances
• payments from which tax was not withheld, including  
  • salary, wages, commissions, bonuses
  • income earned from part-time and casual jobs
  • income from income protection, sickness and accident insurance policies
• tips, gratuities and payments for your services
• consultation fees
• payments for voluntary services (honoraria).

Allowances include:

• car, travel and transport allowances, and reimbursements of car expenses (calculated by reference to the distance travelled by the car, such as 'cents-per-kilometre' allowances)
• award transport payments (paid under an industrial law or award that was in force on 29 October 1986)
• tool, clothing and laundry allowances
• dirt, height, site, first aid and risk allowances
• meal and entertainment allowances.

If you received a travel or an overtime meal allowance paid under an industrial law, award or agreement, do not show it on your tax return if:

• you spent the whole amount on deductible expenses
• it was not shown on your payment summary, and
• it does not exceed the Commissioner's reasonable allowance amount.

You cannot claim deductions for expenses that you paid for with that allowance. For more information, see Taxation Determination TD 2018/11 Income tax: what are the reasonable travel and overtime meal allowance expense amounts for the 2018–19 income year?

Lump sum payments

Employer lump sum A or B payments

These are any lump sum payments you received from your employer for unused annual leave or unused long service leave.

Lump sum D payments

These are the tax-free components of a genuine redundancy payment or an early retirement. This tax-free income will not be included in your taxable income.

Lump sum E payments in arrears

These payments relate to an earlier income year or years and should normally be shown at 'E' on your income statement/PAYG payment summary - individual non-business.

Include at this section any lump sum payments you received in relation to the following:

• back payments of salary or wages that accrued in a period more than 12 months before the date of payment
• salary or wages that accrued during a period of suspension and were paid to you on resuming duty
• back payments of non-superannuation annuities that accrued, in whole or in part, in an earlier year or years of income
• back payments of repatriation and social welfare pensions, allowances or payments, including those paid by foreign governments
• back payments of periodical workers and accident compensation payments but not payments made to the owner of the policy
• back payments of Commonwealth education or training payments.

You may get a tax offset if you received certain lump sum payments in 2018–19. We will calculate the tax offset for you based on the information you provide in your tax return.