You have or are currently studying at a university, you are most likely to have a HELP/HECS debt.
Hopefully you have notified your pay office that you have the debt so that they can take extra tax out on your behalf to cover your obligations. For the 2009 – 10 year your employer will start withholding HELP if your wages exceed $829 per week.
At the end of the year when you do your tax return, based on your HRI income (HRI= Taxable income + any net rental losses + total reportable fringe benefits amounts + reportable super contributions + exempt foreign employment income.) the ATO will calculate how much HELP will need to be paid. The rates for the 2009 – 10 year are set out in the table below.
The HELP that is calculated and the extra tax that has been taken out of your wages by your pay office is in most cases enough to offset each other.
Voluntary repayments of $500 or more can be made at any time, this will give you a discount of 10%. So if you make a payment of $1,000 it will reduce your debt by $1,100. The ATO has a simple calculator to work out the voluntary payments here.
2009–10
| HELP repayment income (HRI*) | Repayment rate |
| Below $43,151 | Nil |
| $43,151–$48,066 | 4% of HRI |
| $48,067–$52,980 | 4.5% of HRI |
| $52,981–$55,764 | 5% of HRI |
| $55,765–$59,953 | 5.5% of HRI |
| $59,954–$64,919 | 6% of HRI |
| $64,920–$68,336 | 6.5% of HRI |
| $68,337–$75,203 | 7% of HRI |
| $75,204–$80,136 | 7.5% of HRI |
| $80,137 and above | 8% of HRI |
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