For Australian families with kids · FY2025–26
Most Australian families with kids have no idea what their next pay rise is actually worth.
Earn a bit more and you can lose most of it — income tax stacked on top of shrinking Family Tax Benefit, Child Care Subsidy and Rent Assistance. This free calculator shows your family's real keep‑rate, the sweet spot where each extra dollar goes furthest, what the same income split differently would leave you, and exactly where the cliffs are.
Free · No sign‑up · Every figure is worked out on your device — nothing you type is ever sent anywhere.
Here's how stark it gets: a family on about $95,000 with two young kids and three days of daycare keeps roughly 38¢ of every extra dollar earned — and for many families, even less. The rest disappears to tax and withdrawn benefits before it reaches them.
Why this is so confusing
You've done the sums in your head. They probably don't add up the way you think.
Say your partner is offered a fourth day at work. Brilliant — more money, right? But that fourth day means another day of childcare. It nudges your family income into a band where the Child Care Subsidy starts shrinking, Family Tax Benefit A and B begin to taper, and the extra income is taxed on top. Stack those together and that fourth day can add almost nothing to what actually lands in your account.
It's not in your head, and it's not your fault the maths is this hard. Australia's tax and benefit systems were each designed on their own — but your family feels them all at once. No one shows you the combined picture for your family. So most families guess. You shouldn't have to choose blind.
Right now, for every extra $100 the second earner brings home
your family keeps $48
…and hands back $52 to tax and reduced payments.
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Your sweet spot — and the dead zone
Family income from $40k to $200k with your settings. Teal shading is the stretch where each extra dollar goes furthest; coral is the dead zone — you keep under half. We draw the map; where you aim on it is entirely yours.
Chart unavailable — the numbers above and below still work.
- Cents kept per extra $1 (left)
- Net family income (right)
- Sweet spot
- Dead zone / cliff
Same income, split differently
Some families can choose how income is shared — a family business or ABN, contracting, or whose name investments sit in. This holds your wages at $— and changes only the split: income tax and Family Tax Benefit B care who earns each dollar. We show the whole curve — the peak speaks for itself.
Chart unavailable — use the slider below instead.
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What each extra day is worth
Another lens — if the second earner is a wage earner deciding on days. What the family keeps from each day's pay, after tax, childcare and every payment that tapers. Your call, not ours — we only show the number.
Compare scenarios
Pin a few options side by side — pick the days a week the second earner works.
Where your cliffs are
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See the dollars behind today's figure
Annual figures, based on what you entered. FTB & Rent Assistance shown as fortnightly rates × 26. End‑of‑year supplements are included when the toggle is on.
Your full picture, on paper
Your personalised Family Income Report — as a PDF
The free calculator shows you today. The report shows every option — side by side, in a clean PDF you can keep, share with your partner, or take to your accountant.
- Your scenarios side by side — second earner at 0, 3 and 5 days, every payment shown.
- Your personal cliff map — where each extra dollar is taxed or clawed back hardest.
- Same income, different split — what changes when the same total is earned 100/0, 70/30 or 50/50.
- A childcare reality check — what one more day of care really costs after the subsidy.
- The bottom line for every option — what you actually keep, per week and per year.
- A clean, shareable PDF — built from your exact numbers, to decide from together.
A financial adviser would charge $3,500–$6,000 to model this for your family. Get it instantly for $39 — early-access price, it rises as we add features.
One‑tap checkout with Apple Pay or Google Pay. Secure payment via Stripe — your family's numbers never leave your device.
How it works
Your real numbers, in three steps.
Tell us about your family
Your incomes, how many kids and their ages, your childcare days and rough rent. About two minutes — no account, no email.
We work out your real take‑home
Income tax, Family Tax Benefit A & B, Child Care Subsidy and Rent Assistance — all in one place, at current rates. Calculated in your browser; your numbers never leave your device.
See your cliffs — and your options
A clear picture of where every extra dollar starts disappearing, with scenarios side by side so you can decide with your eyes open.
The evidence
This isn't a fringe idea. It's well‑documented — just never shown to you.
The squeeze is worst between about $66,700 and $125,000 of family income — the band where stacked tax and benefit withdrawal can claim more than half of every extra dollar.
Productivity Commission (2024) Its inquiry into early childhood education and care devotes a whole appendix to “workforce disincentive rates” — the share of extra pay families lose to tax and benefit withdrawal.
Grattan Institute Found second earners can lose more than 50% of their pay on the 2nd–3rd day of work, and 65–110% on a 4th or 5th day, once childcare and clawback are counted.
The Australian Treasury Models these same effective tax rates in its work on workforce participation and second‑earner incentives.
More than a million families use the Child Care Subsidy — and almost none can see their own combined number.
Cited as data sources, not as endorsers.
A real example
Between $67,000 and $105,000, a one‑income family with two young kids keeps under half of every extra dollar.
And right at the Family Tax Benefit B cut‑out, a single‑income family earning $1,000 more can end up over $5,000 worse off — because crossing the line wipes out the whole payment at once. That's not a typo. It's the exact moment the calculator above paints coral. Put in your own numbers and find where your line falls.
Questions, answered
The things families ask first
Is my data private?
Is this financial advice?
How accurate is it?
I negatively gear or salary‑sacrifice — what income do I enter?
Does it tell me to earn less, or to claim more benefits?
What does it cost?
How this works & important disclaimer
This tool estimates your net disposable family income — your combined pay, minus income tax and the Medicare levy, plus Family Tax Benefit Part A and B (including end‑of‑year supplements when that toggle is on), Child Care Subsidy and Commonwealth Rent Assistance, minus any out‑of‑pocket childcare. It then sweeps your family income from $40,000 to $200,000 to show how much of each extra dollar you keep, marks your sweet spot and any dead zone, and shows where earning more leaves you worse off. Any “other income” you enter (rent received, dividends, interest) counts in full toward the family income your payments are tested on; for income tax, couples are treated as sharing it equally. The income‑split view holds your total constant and only changes who earns it — it shows what you'd keep at each split, nothing more.
General information and estimates only, based on the figures you enter and rates current as at FY2025–26. This is not financial advice, not tax advice, and not an official Services Australia or ATO determination. Actual entitlements are assessed by Services Australia using your full circumstances. Payments are tested on adjusted taxable income — investment losses (negative gearing), reportable super and fringe benefits are added back, so enter incomes with those added back. Rates change each July. We never tell you what you “should” earn — only what you'd keep at each income. Terms & disclaimer.
Official sources: ATO tax rates · FTB income tests · Child Care Subsidy · Rent Assistance