Schedule 9 – Tax table for seniors and pensioners

Use for payments to low-income aged persons and pensioners.

For payments made on or after 13 October 2020

This document is a withholding schedule made by the Commissioner of Taxation in accordance with sections 15-25 and 15-30 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 (TAA). It applies to withholding payments covered by Subdivisions 12-B (except sections 12-50 and 12-55), and 12-D of Schedule 1 to the TAA.

See also:

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

Using this schedule

You should use this schedule if you make payments to:

• seniors and pensioners who, at the end of the relevant financial year, are 66 years of age or older (for example, to be eligible for the year ending 30 June 2021, a payee must be born on or before 30 June 1955)
• veterans receiving a service pension and/or war widows/widowers receiving an income support supplement from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs who are at least 60 years of age.

This schedule applies to weekly payments including:

• salary, wages, allowances and leave loading paid to employees
• director’s fees
• payments to labour-hire workers
• 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)
• a non-super income stream
• a super income stream.

This schedule can only apply if the payee has provided you with either:

• a Withholding declaration answering yes to questions 4, 5 and 8
• a Withholding declaration – short version for seniors and pensioners answering yes to questions 4, 5 and 6.

See also:

• You can download a printable version of Tax table for seniors and pensioners (PDF 1.0MB)This link will download a file (NAT 4466) in Portable Document Format (PDF).
• For super income stream payments, you must also use Tax table for superannuation income streams to calculate withholding.

Working out the withholding amount

To work out the withholding amount:

1. Calculate your payee's total weekly earnings, add any allowances and irregular payments that will be included in this week’s pay to the normal weekly 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 correct amount to withhold. If your payee is:  
   • single, use column 2
   • a member of an illness-separated couple, use column 3
   • a member of a couple, use column 4.
    
4. If your payee is entitled to a tax offset or a Medicare levy adjustment, subtract its weekly value from the withholding amount found in step 3.