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Every year, millions of Australians watch a slice of their pay disappear to a debt they never signed a monthly direct debit for. HECS-HELP — the loan that paid your university fees — doesn’t work like a normal loan. There are no fixed repayments, no due dates, and no penalty for paying slowly. Instead, once your income crosses a threshold, the tax system quietly takes a cut of every paycheque until the debt is gone.

In 2025, the rules changed in the biggest shake-up in the scheme’s history: repayments are now marginal, calculated only on income above the threshold, and the starting threshold jumped to $67,000. If your understanding of HECS comes from the old “1% to 10% of your whole income” brackets, this guide will reset it — with the current 2026–27 thresholds, worked examples, and a clear explanation of what the HECS calculator shows and what it leaves out.

Our calculator takes your annual repayment income and instantly estimates your compulsory HECS repayment. This guide explains the marginal system behind that figure, what counts as repayment income, how indexation grows your debt, and the strategies that actually move the needle.

Important

HELP repayment figures in this guide use the current marginal system: 2026–27 thresholds as the main reference, with 2025–26 figures alongside. The calculator on this site currently uses the pre-July-2025 bracket figures — the section “What the Calculator Shows vs Current Law” explains the difference. This guide is general information, not tax or financial advice.

What Is the HECS Calculator?

The HECS Calculator Australia is a free online tool that estimates your compulsory annual HECS-HELP repayment from your repayment income. Enter one number — your expected annual repayment income — and it instantly returns your estimated yearly repayment, the repayment rate and threshold it used, monthly and fortnightly equivalents, and whether a repayment applies at all.

For most employees, repayment income is close enough to gross salary that the calculator doubles as a quick “how much will HECS cost me this year?” check when starting a new job, negotiating salary, or modelling a pay rise.

Who should use it

• Graduates starting their first full-time job who want to see HECS in their take-home pay
• Anyone negotiating salary or comparing job offers while carrying a HELP debt
• Casual and contract workers whose income moves around the repayment threshold
• Borrowers deciding whether voluntary repayments are worth it
• Australians moving overseas who need to understand worldwide-income obligations
• Parents and students weighing up the true long-run cost of a HELP loan

What Does the HECS Calculator Do?

The calculator has a single input and seven outputs:

Input	Meaning	What to enter
Repayment Income (Annual)	Your annual repayment income for the year	For most PAYG employees, your gross salary

Output	Meaning
Annual HECS Repayment (hero)	Your estimated compulsory repayment for the year
Repayment Income	The figure you entered, echoed back
Repayment Threshold	The minimum threshold the calculator uses ($54,435)
Repayment Rate	The bracket rate applied to your income (e.g. 4.0%)
Annual Repayment	The same yearly figure as the hero amount
Monthly Repayment	Annual repayment ÷ 12
Fortnightly	Annual repayment ÷ 26
Status	“Repayment applies” or no repayment, depending on the threshold

How to Use the HECS Calculator

Step 1: Enter your annual repayment income

Type your expected annual repayment income. For most salaried employees this is simply gross salary — but if you salary package, receive reportable fringe benefits, have investment losses, or earn exempt foreign income, your repayment income may be higher than your taxable income (see “What Counts as Repayment Income” below).

Step 2: Review your results

The calculator shows your estimated annual repayment plus monthly and fortnightly equivalents for budgeting. Use the status line to confirm whether you’re above the threshold, then read on to see how the current marginal system compares with the figure shown.

Read more: How to Calculate Your Take-Home Pay in Australia: Salary, Tax and Deductions Explained

How HELP Repayments Are Calculated — the Marginal System

Here’s the change that matters most. Before 1 July 2025, your repayment rate (1%–10%) applied to your entire repayment income the moment you crossed the threshold — so a small pay rise over a bracket boundary could cost you hundreds extra. From 2025–26, repayments are marginal: you only pay the rate on income above each threshold, exactly like income tax brackets.

2026–27 compulsory repayment thresholds and rates (current year)

Repayment income	Compulsory repayment
$0 – $69,528	Nil
$69,529 – $129,717	15c for each $1 over $69,528
$129,718 – $186,050	$9,028 plus 17c for each $1 over $129,717
$186,051 and over	10% of your total repayment income

(ATO – Study and training support loans rates and repayment thresholds)

Note the last band: above $186,051 the 10% applies to your whole repayment income, not just the amount over the threshold — the one place the old “rate on everything” logic survives. The bands join seamlessly: at $129,717, 15c × ($129,717 − $69,528) = $9,028.35, which is the $9,028 base of the next band; at $186,050 the middle band gives $18,604.61, and at $186,051 the top band gives $18,605.10.

2025–26 thresholds and rates (for the year just ended)

Repayment income	Compulsory repayment
$0 – $67,000	Nil
$67,001 – $125,000	15c for each $1 over $67,000
$125,001 – $179,285	$8,700 plus 17c for each $1 over $125,000
$179,286 and over	10% of your total repayment income

Same structure, slightly lower thresholds — 15% × ($125,000 − $67,000) = $8,700 exactly, so the bands join cleanly here too.

Worked Examples

Example — $70,000 repayment income (2026–27)

	Example Calculation
Band	$69,529 – $129,717
Excess over $69,528	$472.00
Repayment (15% × $472)	$70.80

Under the old pre-2025 system this income would have attracted a rate on the whole $70,000. Under the marginal system, someone just over the threshold pays just seventy dollars for the year — the reform’s entire point.

Example — $80,000 repayment income (2026–27)

	Example Calculation
Excess over $69,528	$10,472.00
Repayment (15% × $10,472)	$1,570.80
Fortnightly equivalent	$60.42

The same $80,000 in 2025–26 gives 15% × $13,000 = $1,950 — the ATO’s own “Grace” example.

Example — $140,000 repayment income (2026–27)

	Example Calculation
Band	$129,718 – $186,050
Base amount	$9,028.00
Plus 17% × ($140,000 − $129,717) = 17% × $10,283	$1,748.11
Total repayment	$10,776.11

Example — $200,000 repayment income (2026–27)

	Example Calculation
Band	$186,051 and over
Repayment (10% × $200,000)	$20,000.00

Below the threshold, the answer is always $0: at $60,000 repayment income you pay nothing in either 2025–26 or 2026–27, no matter how large your debt.

Marginal vs the old system — why it matters

	Pre-July-2025 system	Current marginal system
Rate applies to	Your entire repayment income	Only income above each threshold
Crossing a boundary	Could jump your bill by hundreds	Adds only cents per extra dollar
$80,000 example (2025–26)	3.5% × $80,000 = $2,800	15% × $13,000 = $1,950
Saving at $80,000	—	$850/year (~$33/fortnight)

The old system’s cliffs are gone. A pay rise can no longer trigger a repayment increase bigger than the rise itself — the worst case is now 17 cents of each extra dollar until the top band.

Read more: Australian Pay Calculator: Complete Guide to Salary, Tax and Take-Home Pay

What the Calculator Shows vs Current Law

The calculator is simple and fast — one input, one bracket lookup — but it’s important to know what it’s actually computing. It currently uses the pre-July-2025 figures: a $54,435 threshold with graduated rates (1%–10%) applied to your total repayment income.

Compare its default $80,000 result with the real law:

	Calculator shows	Actual 2025–26 law	Actual 2026–27 law
Threshold used	$54,435	$67,000	$69,528
Method	4% of total income	15% of income over threshold	15% of income over threshold
Annual repayment	$3,200.00	$1,950.00	$1,570.80

The calculator’s figure is roughly double the real 2026–27 repayment at this income. Treat it as a conservative upper bound, not your actual liability — the ATO calculates the real figure when you lodge your return.

The calculator also doesn’t model indexation on your debt balance, voluntary repayments, the overseas worldwide-income rules, or the gap between what your employer withholds during the year and your final assessed repayment. All covered below.

What Counts as Repayment Income

Your repayment isn’t based on the number on your payslip alone. “Repayment income” is a specific legal concept — the sum of:

• Taxable income (excluding assessable First Home Super Saver released amounts)
• Reportable fringe benefits amounts — regardless of whether your employer is exempt
• Total net investment loss — including net rental losses
• Reportable super contributions
• Exempt foreign employment income

This is where graduates get surprised. The ATO’s “Olivia” example: $70,000 taxable income with no fringe benefits gives a 2025–26 repayment of just $450 — but add a $17,000 reportable fringe benefits amount and repayment income becomes $87,000, pushing the repayment to $3,000. Fringe benefits more than sextupled her bill.

Salary packaging deserves special attention: reportable employer super contributions count toward repayment income even though salary sacrifice reduces your taxable income. The packaging that saves you income tax can simultaneously increase your HELP repayment.

One relief: the test uses your income only — not your parents’ or spouse’s. And if you’re entitled to a Medicare levy reduction (or pay no Medicare levy) because of low family income, you don’t have to make a compulsory HELP repayment either.

How Repayments Are Collected

You never get a HELP bill in the mail. Collection is automatic through the tax system in two stages:

During the year — employer withholding. When you start a job, question 11(a) on the Tax File Number declaration asks “Do you have a HELP, SSL or TSL debt?” Answering yes tells your employer to withhold an extra Study and training support loans (STSL) component from each pay, using the ATO’s withholding tables. The ATO issued updated tables for 2025–26 so less is withheld under the marginal system.

At tax time — assessment. Your actual compulsory repayment is calculated when you lodge your return and appears on your notice of assessment. What your employer withheld is credited against it. Amounts withheld aren’t applied to your loan until your return is lodged.

Over-withholding is common in 2025–26: if your employer withheld more than your actual (now lower) compulsory repayment, the excess comes back as a refund with your assessment. Under-withholding — for example if you didn’t declare your debt to your employer — leaves a shortfall you owe at tax time. If you clear your loan mid-year but withholding continues, lodge a new withholding declaration to stop it.

Indexation — the “Interest” That Isn’t Interest

HELP debt has no interest rate, but it isn’t frozen either. On 1 June each year, your outstanding balance is indexed to inflation — applied to the portion unpaid for more than 11 months. In high-inflation years this added thousands to balances overnight, which is why indexation became a political issue.

Indexation rates, 1 June

1 June	Indexation rate
2026	2.8%
2025	3.2%
2024	4.0%
2023	3.2%
2022	3.9%
2021	0.6%

(ATO – Study and training support loans indexation rates)

The 2023 and 2024 figures come with a backstory worth knowing: legislation passed in November 2024 changed indexation from CPI-only to the lower of CPI and wage growth (WPI), backdated to 1 June 2023. Borrowers were credited for the excess — 7.1% down to 3.2% for 2023, 4.7% down to 4.0% for 2024 — wiping around $3 billion in debt. From 2025 the rate is set each year from ABS figures once December CPI and WPI are released.

Important

Indexation applies to your balance, while repayments are driven by your income. A graduate earning under the threshold pays $0 in repayments while indexation quietly adds ~3% to the debt each June. This is the slow-burn case for voluntary repayments.

The One-Off 20% Debt Reduction

In July 2025, Parliament passed a 20% cut to all eligible study and training loan debts — around $16 billion wiped for more than 3 million Australians. It applied automatically to balances as they stood on 1 June 2025, before that year’s 3.2% indexation was applied to the reduced amount. No application was needed; the ATO has completed processing and shows it as a line item (“the 20% loan debt reduction”) on loan accounts.

With the average HELP debt around $27,600, the typical borrower saw roughly $5,520 disappear. The cut covered HELP, VET Student Loans, Australian Apprenticeship Support Loans, Student Start-up Loans and other student loans.

Voluntary Repayments

You can pay extra toward your HELP debt at any time, in any amount — there is no minimum. The practical details:

• No bonus or discount currently applies. (A 5% voluntary repayment bonus existed until 1 January 2017; it was removed.)
• Voluntary payments are not refundable and sit on top of your compulsory repayment — they don’t reduce or replace what you owe for the year.
• Timing matters. Pay before 1 June and the payment shrinks the balance that indexation is applied to. Pay before you lodge your tax return and you may reduce a compulsory repayment assessed on the return.
• Allow up to 4 business days for electronic or Australia Post payments to reach the ATO and show on your account.
• Methods: BPAY and credit card are preferred (you’ll need your payment reference number); direct credit also works — including from overseas.
• Voluntary repayments are not tax deductible (though an employer making them may claim a deduction, with possible fringe benefits tax).
• Don’t make voluntary repayments before you’ve actually incurred a loan, and stop salary-packaged repayments once the balance hits zero.

When does it make sense? The maths favours voluntary payments when you’re earning under the threshold (paying $0 compulsorily while indexation compounds), carrying a large balance, or about to apply for a mortgage and want the withholding — which lenders count against your borrowing capacity — gone sooner.

Moving Overseas

HELP debt doesn’t stay behind when you do. If you live overseas for 183 days or more in any 12-month period with a HELP, VSL or Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan debt:

• Submit an overseas travel notification and update your contact details within 7 days of leaving (via ATO online services through myGov).
• Lodge your worldwide income — or a non-lodgment advice — for the Australian income year by 31 October each year.
• The same repayment thresholds apply to your worldwide income. For 2025–26: worldwide income at or below $16,750 (25% of the $67,000 threshold) means you lodge a non-lodgment advice; above that, you report and pay on the same marginal scale.
• Worldwide income = your repayment income plus non-resident foreign-sourced income, converted at the average exchange rate for the Australian income year. You choose one of three methods to assess the foreign component each year.
• Your loan keeps being indexed while you’re away, and voluntary payments from overseas don’t reduce any compulsory amount owed.

Failing to update the ATO when you leave is the classic compliance trap — the obligation follows you, and so does the indexation.

How Long Until the Debt Is Gone?

There’s no term and no deadline — the debt clears when cumulative repayments (plus the drag of indexation) reach the balance. A rough projection:

Example — $30,000 debt, $85,000 repayment income (2026–27)

	Example Calculation
Annual repayment: 15% × ($85,000 − $69,528)	$2,320.80
Years ignoring indexation ($30,000 ÷ $2,320.80)	~13 years
Fortnightly withheld	~$89.26

Indexation at ~3% adds roughly $900 to the balance in year one, stretching the real timeline — which is why pay rises matter more than they look: every extra dollar of income above the threshold both raises the repayment and outruns indexation faster.

Two identical debts clear years apart depending on income trajectory. Someone on $70,000 repays about $71 a year in 2026–27 (barely denting indexation); at $100,000 the repayment is 15% × $30,472 = $4,570.80, clearing a $30,000 debt in around seven years before indexation. This is the real argument for modelling scenarios rather than taking one number as gospel.

The Loan Types in One Place

“HECS” is what everyone says; “HELP” is the program. The compulsory repayment rules are identical across all study and training support loans — repayments are allocated to HELP first, then VSL, SFSS, SSL, ABSTUDY SSL and AASL:

Loan	What it covers
HECS-HELP	Student contribution for a Commonwealth supported place (no loan fee)
FEE-HELP	Tuition for full-fee places (20% loan fee on undergraduate units)
SA-HELP	Student services and amenities fee
OS-HELP	Overseas study expenses, e.g. exchange semesters
VET Student Loans	Tuition for eligible vocational courses

What Happens on Death, and Where to Check Your Balance

A HELP debt dies with you. It’s linked to your tax file number and cannot be inherited — the executor lodges any outstanding returns up to the date of death, the ATO calculates the final year’s compulsory repayment, and the remaining balance is cancelled.

To see what you owe right now:

• ATO online services via myGov (Tax → Accounts → Loan accounts) or the ATO app — live balance including indexation, repayments, the 20% reduction and any overseas amounts.
• myHELPbalance.gov.au — your available HELP balance: how much you can still borrow under the HELP loan limit. The limit is renewable — repayments since 1 July 2019 top your available balance back up.

Read more: Medicare Levy Calculator Australia: Complete Guide to the Medicare Levy, Exemptions and the Surcharge

Common Mistakes

• Thinking repayments depend on debt size. A $90,000 debt and a $20,000 debt at the same income produce the identical annual repayment. Only income moves the number.
• Using the old 1%–10% brackets. Since 1 July 2025 repayments are marginal. Guides, calculators and payslip folklore quoting “4% of your income” are describing a system that no longer exists.
• Entering taxable income when repayment income is higher. Salary-packaged fringe benefits and reportable super can push repayment income thousands above taxable income — the ATO uses the higher figure.
• Assuming HELP debt hurts your credit score. It doesn’t appear on credit files. But lenders treat the compulsory withholding as a living expense, which reduces borrowing capacity.
• Forgetting indexation while under the threshold. $0 repayments plus ~3% annual indexation means the debt grows while you feel nothing happening.
• Making voluntary repayments at the wrong time. Paying after 1 June means indexation was already applied to the higher balance; paying after lodging may mean a compulsory repayment was already assessed.
• Ignoring the overseas obligation. The 183-day rule catches long working holidays and expat stints — the 7-day notification window is short.
• Not updating the TFN declaration. Starting a second job or forgetting to tick the HELP question means under-withholding and a tax bill in July.

Practical Tips

• Declare your debt on day one. Tick the HELP question on the TFN declaration for every job — under-withholding is the most avoidable tax bill in the system.
• Model the marginal bands before a pay rise. Under the new system a $5,000 rise costs at most 17c per dollar in extra HELP repayment — the old cliff anxiety is over.
• Check your myGov loan account after 1 June. Confirm indexation looks right and the 20% reduction (if eligible) is showing as a line item.
• Time voluntary payments for May. A payment in May beats the same payment in June because it shrinks the balance indexation is calculated on.
• Keep the ATO’s thresholds page bookmarked. Thresholds are indexed every year — the $69,528 you memorise today won’t be next year’s number.

Frequently Asked Questions

Final Takeaway

HECS-HELP is the gentlest debt you’ll ever carry — no fixed repayments, no interest, no deadline, and nothing to pay until you’re earning decent money. But “gentle” isn’t “free”: indexation compounds every June, repayment income is broader than your salary, and the debt shadows you overseas.

The formula that matters now:

2026–27: 15% × (repayment income − $69,528) — for most earners under $129,717

Use the calculator for the instant estimate, then run your real numbers through the marginal bands in this guide. And when the figures decide real money, the ATO’s current-year thresholds page is the final word.