Your income.
Made clear.
Explore your pay and compare your options.
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The Simple Guide is a separate income questionnaire.
The numbers
ATO withholdingCompare your options.
Full-year Australian resident model. Annual assessment estimates, separate from payroll withholding.
How this comparison works
How to use this comparison
One income, different ways to receive itStart with the same amount
Use your annual salary before tax, or business profit after expenses. The slider tests a different amount across every option.
Match your situation
Tick HECS if you have a debt. Medicare usually applies to both employees and sole traders. Add company costs if you want to compare a company.
Look at personal cash first
This is the money available to you after the estimated tax and HECS. Company funds are separate and may face more tax when paid to you later.
Which row should I look at?
Employee: you receive a salary. This is also the personal tax estimate to look at if your own company pays you wages. The company rows below model dividends instead.
Sole trader: the business profit is your personal income. It uses personal tax rates, so it can look very similar to employment. Tick the small business offset only if you qualify.
Company: the company earns the profit and pays company tax. “Retain all” leaves it in the business. “Pay out all” distributes it to you as a fully franked dividend. Your custom payout lets you try a mix.
The payout slider: 50% means half of the profit left after company tax is paid to you. The other half stays in the company. It is not a salary.
How do I use the numbers to make a decision?
Need money for living costs? Compare personal cash. A large company balance does not mean more money available for your mortgage or groceries.
Want to keep money in the business? Compare funds held in the company, then consider the tax when you eventually withdraw them. Retaining profit can change the timing of tax, rather than remove it.
Is a company worth the extra work? Enter realistic accounting and administration costs. Also compare super, paid leave, insurance and responsibility for running the business; those are outside these numbers.
Comparing an employee offer with contracting? Use equivalent amounts. Salary here excludes employer super. Business income here is profit after expenses, not the total invoice value. A company salary also has company costs and employer obligations that this matrix does not calculate.
Is the income mainly payment for your own work? Check whether personal services income (PSI) attribution applies. Receiving that income through a company does not automatically make the company retention model available.
Already earning from several sources? This compares alternative ways to receive one income amount. It does not split income between salary, sole trader profit and dividends. Your personal taxable income from those sources is generally added together, so do not calculate each separately and add the take-home figures.
Eligibility & assumptions
Standard 2%, reduced at low incomes. Half exemption is in assumptions; uncheck for a full exemption.
Uses annual repayment income, including dividend franking credits.
Sole trader only. Turnover below $5m; eligible business income. 16%, capped at $1,000.
Company scenarios are unavailable if this income must be attributed to you.
Accounting & running costs
Start with an estimate. Change it if you have a quote.
Adjust the estimates & see what they cover
Rounded budgets for recurring, deductible accounting, software and administration expenses, after any recoverable GST. Income above is profit before these costs. Choose “Already included” if they were taken out of your profit.
Company setup: allow roughly $1,700–$2,500 upfront for professional help, depending on the package. This is separate from annual costs and is not deducted in this annual comparison. A company you already have may have little extra cost for a new income stream; use your actual incremental costs.
Company budgets include a rounded $350 allowance for ASIC annual review, not a confirmed ASIC fee. Packages may bundle software and BAS, so avoid adding them again. Separate personal tax-return fees for employees or company owners are not included. Excludes insurance, staff payroll, super and legal advice. Low incomes or complex businesses may not fit these budgets.
Planning estimates checked 11 October 2026. Not quotes or market averages.Try a company
These rows use dividends, not wages. Profit belongs to the company until paid to you.
PSI attribution can make the income personally taxable even when a company receives it. The company rows are paused because the profit-retention model would not apply. The small business offset is also excluded for attributed PSI.
Your decision matrix
| Scenario | Personal cashafter tax & HECS | Held in companybefore future payout tax | Running costsannual budget | Net income taxcompany + personal | Medicare | HECS / HELP | Combined balancecash + company funds |
|---|
Read “Personal cash” as money available to you. “Held in company” is money left in the business. “Combined balance” adds the two, before any future tax on the company funds; it is not your personal take-home pay.
HECS and Medicare assumptions
Planning estimates for a full-year Australian resident with no other income, no deductions beyond the recurring costs above, and no SAPTO or family Medicare reductions. Excludes GST, super contributions, Medicare levy surcharge, capital gains, carried-forward losses and other offsets. Company dividends are fully franked at the selected rate, with enough franking credits and an eligible shareholder who can use and refund them. Not a company salary or PSI calculation. Personal cash includes any franking refund after tax assessment.
Medicare at low incomes is provisional: the 2026–27 annual thresholds have not yet been published by the ATO. This matrix currently uses the latest confirmed 2025–26 threshold. The pay table uses the published 2026–27 withholding schedules.
The Simple Guide.
Answer a few questions to compare employee, sole trader and company income.
Full-year Australian resident estimates · 2026–27. Your answers stay on this device. This compares alternatives for one income amount.
The working, made clear.
Rates checked 10 October 2026Pay table: withholding versus final tax
The pay table uses ATO Schedule 1 for regular earnings from 1 July 2026. It supports resident scales 1, 2, 5 and 6, foreign resident scale 3 and the two no-TFN rates in scale 4. Full and half Medicare exemption codes assume the threshold was claimed and a TFN provided. Yearly tax projects 52 weekly pays. Each pay frequency applies its own rounding, so annual totals can differ.
Optional HECS/HELP withholding uses Schedule 8 and rounds its component separately. It is not added when no TFN is supplied. No declared tax offsets, family levy variations, bonuses, terminations or employer super are included. The scenario matrix estimates annual liability separately, including LITO. Differences from the pay table are expected.
How the sliders and reverse calculations work
Sliders recalculate immediately in your browser. The calculator slider adjusts gross annual income in $100 steps; plus and minus move $1,000. Edit any table cell for an exact amount, including cents. Enter or Apply calculates it; take-home and tax inputs work backwards. You can type values such as $100,100 or 100.1k.
Compact display never rounds the stored income. Focus a cell to see its exact amount. ATO withholding can give several matching gross amounts; the lowest exact match is shown. Some tax targets cannot occur because of pay-period rounding.
Proceeding to scenarios takes a snapshot of your annual gross. The scenario slider lets you test another amount against that locked baseline. Changing scenario settings does not change your calculator. Starting a new comparison takes a fresh snapshot.
Annual income tax, HECS and company logic
2026–27 resident tax: 0% to $18,200; 15% to $45,000; 30% to $135,000; 37% to $190,000; then 45%. LITO is included and cannot create a refund. The eligible sole trader offset is 16% of basic tax, capped at $1,000 and by tax payable, with all taxable income assumed eligible net business income.
HECS/HELP: nil to repayment income of $69,528; 15% of the excess to $129,717; $9,028 plus 17% of the excess over $129,717 to $186,050; then 10% of total repayment income. Optional balance caps apply only to the annual scenario estimate, not employer withholding. Additional debts and overseas rules are not modelled.
Company tax is 25% for an eligible base rate entity, otherwise 30%. Payouts include a franking credit for the associated company tax. Both the dividend and credit enter personal taxable income and HECS repayment income. The credit offsets personal income tax and an eligible excess is refundable. Company funds held back are shown separately, before any future distribution taxes. These scenarios assume the company tax and franking rate are the same.
Official sources and scope
Tax codes and scenario estimates have different purposes. These models cover the assumptions stated here; they do not determine eligibility or replace an individual assessment.