{"slug":"australia-hecs-help-repayment","name":"Australia HECS-HELP Repayment & Indexation (2025-26 reform)","category":"borrow","tags":["debt","income","planning"],"region":"AU","tagline":"Your compulsory HELP repayment under the new marginal system, what indexation adds each 1 June, and how the 20% cut and old rules compare.","endpoint":"https://xearno.tools/api/v1/tools/australia-hecs-help-repayment","page":"https://xearno.tools/t/australia-hecs-help-repayment","description":"Computes your compulsory HECS-HELP repayment under Australia’s reformed 2025-26 system — a marginal calculation (nil to $67,000, then 15% and 17% slices, then a flat 10% of total income at the top) that replaced the old flat-percentage-of-entire-income scale. Three reforms landed within a year (the marginal flip, indexation recut to the lower of CPI/WPI backdated to 2023, and a one-off 20% balance cut in July 2025), so general AI still computes the old system on the old thresholds. The tool also names the input people get wrong: ATO “repayment income” is not your salary — reportable super contributions and net investment losses are added back.","inputSchema":{"type":"object","properties":{"incomeYear":{"description":"Income year Thresholds are indexed to average weekly earnings each year, so the year changes the answer.","type":"string","enum":["2025-26","2026-27"],"default":"2026-27"},"repaymentIncome":{"description":"ATO repayment income ($) NOT your salary. ATO “repayment income” = taxable income (excluding assessable FHSS released amounts) + reportable fringe benefits + total net investment loss (including net rental losses) + reportable super contributions + exempt foreign employment income. Salary-sacrificed super and negative-gearing losses are added back — a $95k salary with $10k reportable super contributions is $105k repayment income.","type":"number","minimum":0,"default":85000},"balance":{"description":"HELP debt balance today ($) Your current HELP balance (myGov → ATO → loan accounts). Used for the indexation and payoff-horizon estimates. The default is the national average debt.","type":"number","minimum":0,"default":27600},"hadDebtJun2025":{"description":"Did you have a HELP balance on 1 June 2025? Balances as at 1 June 2025 received a one-off 20% cut (passed July 2025), applied automatically before that year’s indexation.","type":"string","enum":["yes","no"],"default":"yes"}},"required":[],"additionalProperties":false},"methodology":["Repayment (2025-26): nil to $67,000; 15% of income over $67,000 up to $125,000; $8,700 + 17% of income over $125,000 up to $179,285; from $179,286 a flat 10% of TOTAL repayment income (not marginal — the band edge is set near where the two formulas cross, so the step is cents, not a cliff). 2026-27 (AWE-indexed): nil to $69,528; 15% over $69,528 to $129,717; $9,028 + 17% over $129,717 to $186,050; flat 10% from $186,051. Amounts are computed exact to cents. Verified against ATO worked examples for 2026-27: $86,380 → $2,527.80; $137,064 → $10,276.99; $254,780 → $25,478.00 (read 2026-07-23).","Repayment income is the ATO definition, not salary: taxable income (excluding assessable FHSS released amounts) + reportable fringe benefits + total net investment loss (including net rental losses) + reportable super contributions + exempt foreign employment income. Salary sacrifice and negative gearing raise it above take-home pay.","Old-system comparison: the pre-2025 system charged a flat percentage of the ENTIRE repayment income across 18 bands (2024-25: nil below $54,435, 1.0% from $54,435, rising to 10.0% at $159,664+). For a like-for-like delta the tool indexes those bands forward the way the government’s own examples do (2025-26 old-scale minimum threshold $56,156; 2026-27 additionally scaled by the same AWE factor as the new thresholds). This reproduces the published example: $80,000 in 2025-26 → $2,800 old (3.5% flat) vs $1,950 new.","Indexation: applied each 1 June to debt older than 11 months, at the lower of CPI and WPI since the 2023 recut (2023: 3.2%, was 7.1%; 2024: 4.0%, was 4.7%; 2025: 3.2%; 2026: 2.8%). Future rates are unknown until the December-quarter CPI/WPI land (~Feb–Mar). The tool uses the latest known rate (2.8%) as an illustration only.","One-off 20% cut (Universities Accord Bill, passed July 2025): 20% off the balance as at 1 June 2025, applied BEFORE the 2025 indexation (balance × 0.80, then × 1.032). Automatic — no application; covered HELP, VSL, AASL, SSL and SFSS; over 3 million people, about $16bn, average $5,520 off the average $27,600 debt.","Payoff horizon: iterates balance × (1 + indexation) − annual repayment at flat income and the latest known indexation rate. A projection for orientation, not a schedule — income growth, rate changes, and voluntary repayments all move it."],"usage":"POST https://xearno.tools/api/v1/tools/australia-hecs-help-repayment with a JSON body matching inputSchema."}