Medicare levy reduction – your number of dependent children
A dependent child is any child who was an Australian resident whom you maintained in 2018–19 and whose Adjusted taxable income (ATI) was less than the amounts in the table below.
Category of dependent child |
ATI if maintained for the whole year |
ATI if not maintained for the whole year |
|---|---|---|
Any child under 21 years old you maintained who was not a full-time student |
For the first child: $1,786 For each additional child: $1,410 |
For the first child: $282 plus $28.92 for each week you maintained them For each additional child: $282 plus $21.70 for each week you maintained them |
Any full-time student aged under 25 years old at a school, college or university |
$1,786 |
$282 plus $28.92 for each week you maintained them |
If you had a spouse on 30 June 2019 or your spouse died during 2018–19 and you did not have another spouse that year, count all your dependent children.
If you were single or separated on 30 June 2019, count only the number of dependent children for whom you received the family tax benefit (FTB) during all or part of 2018–19. Count them even if you received only the rental assistance component of FTB Part A and you shared the care of the dependent child.
Medicare levy exemption categories
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 2018–19. These categories are:
If you do not fit into one of the exemption categories, go to Medicare levy surcharge.
Medicare levy exemption - meaning of dependent
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 2018-19 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 received FTB Part A for the child, even if receiving only the rental assistance component, the child was a dependant of that parent for the number of days the child was in their care.