Definition of a dependant
When determining your eligibility for the Medicare levy exemption (but not for the Medicare levy reduction) you need to use the following definition of a dependant. A dependant means an Australian resident for tax purposes you maintained who was either:
- your spouse
- your child under 21 years old
- your child, 21 to 24 years old
- receiving full-time education at a school, college or university, and
- whose adjusted taxable income for the period you maintained them was less than the total of $282 plus $28.92 for each week you maintained them.
Maintenance of a dependant
You maintained a dependant if any of the following applied:
- you both lived in the same house
- you gave them food, clothing and lodging
- you helped them to pay for their living, medical and educational costs.
If you had a spouse for the whole income year and your spouse worked at any time during the income year, we will still consider you to have maintained your spouse as a dependant for the whole income year.
If the 2 of you were temporarily separated, for example, because of holidays or overseas travel, we still consider you to have maintained a dependant.
A child is treated as an equal dependant of each parent (irrespective of the number of days the child was in each parent’s care) if:
- the parents of the child lived separately and apart for all, or part, of the income year, and
- the child was a dependant of each of them.
However, if a parent receives Family Tax Benefit Part AExternal Link for the child, the child is a dependant of that parent for the number of days they were in their care.