Tax Return Calculator
Estimate the refund or bill on your 2025–26 tax return, or plan ahead for 2026–27, from your income, the tax already withheld and your deductions.
Your tax return estimate
Estimated refund, 2025–26
$44.00
Tax withheld $16,432.00 against tax for the year of $16,388.00
- Salary and wages
- $80,000.00
- Taxable income
- $80,000.00
- Income tax
- $14,788.00
- Medicare levy
- $1,600.00
- Tax for the year
- $16,388.00
- Less tax withheld
- −$16,432.00
- Refund
- $44.00
Resident for the full year, single, no other offsets. The ATO works out your actual refund when you lodge.
Rates checked 12 October 2026 against the ATO · How we calculate · Calculated in your browser; nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
What increases or reduces a refund
Your refund is simply the tax withheld during the year minus your tax for the year. On the default example of $80,000 in 2025–26, $16,432.00 withheld against $16,388.00 of tax gives a refund of $44.00.
- Deductions lower your taxable income, so they increase a refund by roughly your marginal tax rate times the amount claimed.
- Income with no tax withheld, such as bank interest, is taxed at your marginal rate when you lodge and reduces the refund.
- A HECS-HELP debt adds a compulsory repayment. If your employer withheld for it, little changes; if not, it comes off your refund. In the example above, a debt nobody withheld for would change the result to a bill of $1,906.00.
- The Medicare levy surcharge is not normally withheld, so higher earners without private hospital cover often see it reduce a refund.
- Starting or stopping work during the year usually increases a refund, because each pay was withheld as if you earned at that rate all year.
Standard work-related deduction
From the 2026–27 income year, Australian residents with salary or wages get a standard deduction of up to $1,000 for work-related expenses, applied automatically in their tax return without receipts. It reduces taxable income; it is not a tax offset.
- It is the lower of $1,000 and your total labour income.
- Work-related expenses you claim reduce it dollar for dollar, so claiming $550 of expenses leaves a $450 standard deduction, and claiming more than $1,000 replaces it entirely.
- Union fees, donations, tax agent fees and income protection premiums are claimed on top.
- It does not apply to 2025–26 returns, to foreign residents, or to people whose only income is business or investment income.
Source: ATO, Standard deduction for work-related expenses, last updated 14 September 2026.
Frequently asked questions
Can I claim the standard deduction in my 2025–26 return?
No. The ATO says the standard deduction first applies in 2026–27 returns and is not available for 2025–26. For 2025–26 you claim work-related expenses in the usual way, with records.
Why do I owe tax this year?
Usually because not enough was withheld during the year: having two jobs that both claimed the tax-free threshold, income with no tax taken out such as bank interest, a HECS-HELP debt your employer did not know about, or the Medicare levy surcharge if you earned above the threshold without private hospital cover.
Do I need receipts for work-related expenses?
From 2026–27, if you take the standard deduction you need no records for work-related expenses. If you claim more than the standard deduction, you need written evidence for all of your work-related expenses, because the old exceptions such as the $300 limit no longer apply.