Income & Tax · Study loans
HECS/HELP Repayment Calculator — What does your HELP debt cost you?
From FY 2025–26, HELP repayments are marginal — you only repay on income above the threshold, not on the lot. See your compulsory repayment, its hit to take-home pay, and roughly when the balance clears.
What you enter
- Annual repayment income
- Financial year
- HELP balance (optional)
How this is calculated
From FY 2025–26, compulsory HELP repayments use a marginal system: nothing on income up to the threshold ($67,000 in 2025–26, $69,528 in 2026–27), 15c per dollar up to the second threshold ($125,000 / $129,717), 17c per dollar above that, with the total capped at 10% of repayment income. We calculate your repayment from those bands, show its effect on take-home pay after tax and Medicare, and roughly how long your balance takes to clear.
Common questions
What changed in the 2025 HELP reforms?
Three things: a one-off 20% reduction was applied to eligible balances, the repayment threshold jumped from $54,435 to $67,000, and the system became marginal — you now repay only on income above the threshold instead of a percentage of your entire income. Most people with a HELP debt repay less per year than under the old rules.
What counts as "repayment income"?
Taxable income plus reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, exempt foreign employment income, and net investment losses. This calculator approximates it with gross income — if you salary sacrifice or negatively gear, your official repayment income is higher than your salary.
How does indexation work?
Your balance is indexed each 1 June by the lower of CPI and the Wage Price Index (backdated to 2023). Indexation isn't interest — there's no compounding rate a lender sets — but it does mean a balance can grow faster than slow repayments shrink it. The payoff estimate here ignores indexation and income growth.
Should I make voluntary repayments?
It depends on your alternatives — a voluntary repayment saves you future indexation (roughly CPI), which is usually less than expected returns on investments or your mortgage offset. There's no early-repayment discount. This is a common question for a financial adviser, not something this calculator decides for you.
How does it rank?
Once you have your result, see how your number compares against your demographic with our full money rank — by age, sex, state and household composition.
Methodology & data
MARGINAL SYSTEM FROM FY 2025–26 · REPAYMENT INCOME ≈ GROSS · INDICATIVE. Australian context, FY 2026–27 tax brackets by default (15% lowest marginal rate from 1 July 2026) with a financial-year selector on tax calculators. Calculations are indicative and based on simplified public models — not personal financial, tax or legal advice. See the full disclaimer.
Primary data sources
- Australian Taxation Office — Taxation Statistics — Individuals Tables 3A & 4A (income by age, sex & state) (2023–24)
- Australian Bureau of Statistics — Household Income and Wealth, Australia — net worth by age & net-worth quintiles (2019–20)
- Australian Taxation Office — Taxation Statistics — Individuals Table 22 (super balance by age) & Table 23A (age × sex) (2023–24)
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