Fortnightly tax table with no and half Medicare levy

For payments made on or after 13 October 2020

Use the Withholding lookup tool to quickly work out the amount to withhold (XLSX 34KB)This link will download a file.

Using this table

Use this table if you make payments to a prescribed person entitled to a full or half Medicare levy exemption. Prescribed persons include members of the defence force and certain recipients of repatriation and social security pensions and benefits.

You should use this table if you make any of the following payments to these payees on a fortnightly basis:

• salary, wages, allowances and leave loading paid to employees
• paid parental leave
• directors' fees
• salary and allowances paid to office holders (including members of parliament, statutory office holders, defence force members and police officers)
• payments to labour-hire workers
• payments to religious practitioners
• government education or training payments
• compensation, sickness or accident payments that are calculated at a periodical rate and made because a person is unable to work (unless the payment is made under an insurance policy to the policy owner).

For this table to apply, your payee must have completed both of the following:

• a valid Tax file number declaration claiming the tax-free threshold
• a Medicare levy variation declaration claiming a full or half levy exemption from their Medicare levy.

Other tax tables may apply if you made payments to shearers, workers in the horticultural industry, performing artists and those engaged on a daily or casual basis.

This tax table does not apply to individuals who are not prescribed persons, including foreign residents, individuals employed in the seasonal workers programme or under a working holiday maker visa.

If you make a payment to your payee who is entitled to an adjustment to the Medicare half levy, refer to Weekly tax table with no and half Medicare levy.

See also:

• You can download a printable look-up table of fortnightly withholding with no and half Medicare Levy (PDF 920KB)This link will download a file in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Using a formula

The withholding amounts shown in this table can be expressed in a mathematical form.

If you have developed your own payroll software package, refer to Statement of formulas for calculating amounts to be withheld.

Refer to Weekly tax table with no and half Medicare levy for other important PAYG withholding information for payers, including:

• tax file number (TFN) declarations
• withholding declarations
• Medicare levy adjustment
• allowances
• foreign residents tax rates
• Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), VET Student Loan (VSL), Financial Supplement (FS), Student Start-up Loan (SSL) or Trade Support Loan (TSL) debts
• holiday pay, long service and employment termination payments
• tax offsets.

Working out the withholding amount

To work out the amount you need to withhold, you must:

1. Calculate your employee's total fortnightly earnings – add any allowances and irregular payments that are to be included in this fortnight's pay to the normal fortnightly earnings, ignoring any cents.
2. Input the amount from step 1 into the Withholding lookup tool (XLSX 34KB)This link will download a file as per instructions in the tool
3. Use the appropriate column to find the amount to be withheld. If your employee is:  
   • claiming full Medicare levy exemption, use column 2
   • claiming half Medicare levy exemption, use column 3.
    
4. Adjust the withholding amount found in step 3 if your payee:  
   • has an entitlement to a tax offset
   • is entitled to an adjustment for the Medicare levy – half levy
   • has a HELP, VSL, FS, SSL or TSL debt (see Study and training support loans fortnightly tax table).
    

Ready reckoner for tax offsets

If the exact tax offset amount claimed is not shown in the ready reckoner, add the values for an appropriate combination of tax offsets.