Fortnightly tax table with no and half Medicare levy

Using this tax table

This tax table is for payments made from 1 July 2026.

Use this tax table if you make the following fortnightly payments to a prescribed person who is 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.

• 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).

Payees who are prescribed persons include members of the defence force and certain recipients of repatriation and social security pensions and benefits.

For this tax table to apply, your payee must have completed both a:

• Tax file number declaration claiming the tax-free threshold
• 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. The table also does not apply to foreign residents, individuals employed in the seasonal workers programme, the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme 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.

You can also:

• use the Withholding lookup tool (XLSX, 25KB)This link will download a fileThis link will download a file to quickly work out the amount to withhold
• download a printable version of Fortnightly tax table with no and half Medicare Levy (NAT 74228, PDF 881KB)This link will download a file.

Using a formula

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

If you have developed your own payroll or accounting software package, refer to Schedule 1 – 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
• Study and training support loans debt
• leave payments and employment termination payments
• tax offsets.

Working out the withholding amount

To work out the withholding amount, follow these steps :

1. Calculate your payee's total fortnightly earnings – add any allowances and irregular payments that are to be included in this fortnight's pay period to the normal fortnightly earnings, ignoring any cents.
2. Input the amount from step 1 into the Withholding lookup tool (XLSX, 25KB)This link will download a file as per instructions in the tool.
3. Use the appropriate column to find the amount to withhold. If your payee is claiming:
   • full Medicare levy exemption, use column 2
   • half Medicare levy exemption, use column 3.
4. Adjust the withholding amount found in step 3 if your payee
   • is entitled to a tax offset
   • is entitled to an adjustment for the Medicare levy – half levy
   • has advised you of an accumulated Higher Education Loan Program (HELP), VET Student Loan (VSL), Financial Supplement (FS), Student Start-up Loan (SSL) or Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan (AASL) debt. See Study and training support loans fortnightly tax table.

Ready reckoner for tax offsets

Tax offset entitlement – fortnightly value

Amount claimed $	Fortnightly value $	Amount claimed $	Fortnightly value $	Amount claimed $	Fortnightly value $
1	–	80	3	1,800	68
2	–	90	3	2,000	76
3	–	100	4	2,200	84
4	–	200	8	2,400	91
5	–	300	11	2,600	99
6	–	338	13	2,800	106
7	–	400	15	3,000	114
8	–	500	19	3,200	122
9	–	600	23	3,400	129
10	–	700	27	3,600	137
20	1	800	30	3,800	144
30	1	900	34	4,000	152
40	2	1,000	38
50	2	1,173	45
57	2	1,200	46
60	2	1,400	53
70	3	1,600	61

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

PAYG withholding publications

You can access all PAYG withholding tax tables and other PAYG withholding publications at:

• Tax tables
• PAYG withholding