HECS-HELP Repayment Calculator

Work out your compulsory study loan repayment for the 2026–27 income year.

Rates verified against the ATO on 21 September 2026

Your income

Enter your income below. The result updates as you type — nothing is sent anywhere.

Your income before tax, excluding any First Home Super Saver amount released to you.

Compulsory repayment for 2026–27

$3,820.80

15c for each $1 over $69,528

Per month$318.40
Per fortnight$146.95
Effective rate4.0%

Your take-home breakdown

Gross income
$95,000.00
Income tax
$19,020.00
Medicare levy (2%)
$1,900.00
LITO offset
$0.00
HECS repayment
$3,820.80
Net take-home
$70,259.20

Per year. Switch pay frequency above to see per period.

Medicare levy reduction for incomes $28,011–$35,013 not shown. Formula unverified. See assumptions.

Compare 2025–26 vs 2026–27

See how the new marginal rates changed your compulsory repayment.

Loan payoff simulator

See how long it takes to clear your HECS-HELP debt with voluntary repayments on top of the compulsory amount.

Your outstanding HECS-HELP balance as at today.

Extra amount you plan to pay each year, on top of the compulsory repayment.

Indexation is the lower of CPI or WPI. The rate applied on 1 June 2026 was 2.8%. This is an assumption about future years.

Estimated payoff

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Enter your balance above to see when your loan clears.

Voluntary repayment optimiser

Have spare cash? See if paying extra toward your HECS now beats holding it elsewhere.

What you'd earn/avoid elsewhere. Leave 0% if none.

Paying $5,000.00 now saves $140.00 in indexation and clears 16 months earlier.

Assumes 2.8% HECS indexation vs 0% alternative. Breakeven: 36 years.

Pay-rise / offer evaluator

Compare two salaries side by side. See what a pay rise actually means after tax and HECS.

Your current annual income before tax.

The salary you're considering or have been offered.

What this pay rise means for you

Gross increase$15,000.00
Tax increase−$4,500.00
Medicare increase−$300.00
LITO change$0.00
HECS increase−$2,250.00
Net increase$7,950.00

Per period breakdown:

Per week$152.88
Per fortnight$305.77
Per month$662.50
Per year$7,950.00

The net increase is what actually lands in your bank account after all deductions. A $15,000 gross rise becomes $7,950 net. The rest goes to tax and higher HECS repayments.

Add other amounts that count towards repayment income

Repayment income is broader than taxable income. These are annual amounts from your income statement, so they are not affected by the pay frequency you chose above. Leave them at zero if they don’t apply to you.

Based on a repayment income of $95,000.

2026–27 repayment rates

Published by the ATO. Applies from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027.

Repayment thresholds and rates for the 2026-27 income year
Repayment incomeRepayment
$0 – $69,528Nil
$69,529 – $129,71715c per $1 over $69,528
$129,718 – $186,050$9,028 + 17c per $1 over $129,717
$186,051 and over10% of total repayment income

Assumptions

Every assumption this calculator makes, stated in full.

  • Figures are for the 2026–27 income year (1 July 2026 – 30 June 2027).
  • Your loan balance is assumed to be larger than the calculated repayment. If your remaining balance is smaller, you only repay what is left.
  • The result is the compulsory annual repayment raised on assessment. It does not model PAYG amounts withheld from each pay, which your employer calculates separately and which are reconciled at tax time.
  • Monthly and fortnightly figures are the annual amount divided by 12 and 26. They are for budgeting only.
  • Indexation is not included in the repayment figure. Indexation of 2.8% was applied on 1 June 2026 to the part of a loan unpaid for more than 11 months, and changes your balance, not your compulsory repayment.
  • The one-off 20% debt reduction applied to balances as at 1 June 2025 and is already reflected in current balances. It is not applied again here.
  • All study and training loan types (HELP, VSL, SFSS, SSL, ABSTUDY SSL, AASL) share these thresholds and rates.
This is a generic calculator, not financial advice. It does not take your personal circumstances into account and does not recommend any financial product. Figures are estimates. For your actual position, check your ATO account via myGov or speak to a registered tax agent.

How HECS-HELP repayments work in 2026–27

If you have a HECS-HELP or other study and training support loan, the ATO raises a compulsory repayment once your repayment income passes the minimum threshold. For 2026–27 that threshold is $69,528.

Marginal rates replaced the old system

Before 2025–26, a single percentage was applied to your whole repayment income. Crossing a threshold by one dollar could increase your repayment by hundreds. From the 2025–26 income year the ATO calculates the repayment only on income above the threshold, in the same marginal way income tax works.

Repayment income is not the same as taxable income

This is the most common mistake. Repayment income is your taxable income (excluding any assessable First Home Super Saver released amount) plus reportable fringe benefits, total net investment loss including net rental losses, reportable super contributions, and exempt foreign employment income. Salary sacrificing into super does not reduce your repayment income — the sacrificed amount is added back.

Indexation

On 1 June each year the ATO indexes the part of your loan that has been unpaid for more than 11 months. Indexation is the lower of CPI or WPI, a cap introduced by amendments passed in November 2024. The rate applied on 1 June 2026 was 2.8%, the lowest since 2021.

The one-off 20% reduction

The Universities Accord (Cutting Student Debt by 20 Per Cent) Bill 2025 became law on 2 August 2025. It cut 20% from outstanding balances as at 1 June 2025, before indexation, and the 1 June 2025 indexation was then recalculated on the reduced balance. This has already happened. It is a past adjustment to your balance, not an ongoing discount.

Common questions

Do I repay anything if I earn under $69,528?

No. There is no compulsory repayment at or below the minimum threshold. You can still make voluntary repayments at any time.

Does my employer withholding equal my repayment?

Not exactly. Your employer withholds an estimated amount each pay based on your declared loan. The actual compulsory repayment is calculated on assessment, and any difference is settled in your tax return.

Which loans do these rates cover?

HELP, VET Student Loan, SFSS, Student Start-up Loan, ABSTUDY SSL and the Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan all share one set of thresholds. Where you hold several, repayments are applied in that order.

Repayment by income

Jump straight to the compulsory HECS-HELP repayment for your salary, worked out at the 2026-27 rates:

HECS guides

Understand the scheme before you calculate:

Use this calculator in your own tools

The engine behind this page is also available as a JSON API and as a Model Context Protocol server, so a program — or an AI assistant, mid-conversation — can call it directly. No API key and no registration, because this site publishes no contact address and so has no way to issue one.

API and MCP server documentation, or read the OpenAPI description. Every response carries the ATO source URL and the date the figures were last verified against it.