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 full-rate zone, the squeeze and the recovery, the price of every option from one more day to one partner at home, and exactly where the genuine cliffs are.

Use my own numbers

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 The rest disappears to tax and withdrawn benefits before it reaches them.

“I'm James, a dad in Hobart. It took me days buried in a spreadsheet, untangling FTB tapers and childcare thresholds, before our family's real numbers made sense. It should not be that hard. Now it takes two minutes.”

Stylised keep-rate curve: the full-rate zone, the hatched squeeze corridor between $66,722 and $125,110, and the recovery beyond it.

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.

Your family

Relationship

Couple Single parent

Higher earner, yearly income $90,000

Second earner, days a week 2 days

≈ $27,664/yr · at /hr, 7.6h days

Children 1

We use childcare

Days per week

Typical daily fee

Applied to children aged 5 or under. We cap the fee at the subsidised rate and apply the “3 Day Guarantee”.

We also pay rent

We have other income

Higher earner has a HELP/HECS debt

Second earner has a HELP/HECS debt

FY2025-26 repayments are marginal: nil to $67,000, then 15c per extra $1 to $125,000, then 17c (and 10% of the lot from $179,286).

We have private hospital cover

Without hospital cover, the Medicare Levy Surcharge adds 1% to 1.5% of income above $202,000 of family income (the threshold rises $1,500 per child after the first).

Include end‑of‑year supplements

FTB‑A & FTB‑B supplements are paid as a lump sum after the financial year. The FTB‑A one ($938/child) cuts out above $80,000, its own little cliff.

Right now, for every extra $100 the second earner brings home

your family keeps $48

…and hands back $52 to tax and reduced payments.

…

Keeping 48c of a dollar still means keeping $48. Extra work always adds money unless you are on a marked cliff. This shows the price of each option, never whether to take it.

Your keep-rate, zone by zone

Family income from $40k to $350k with your settings. Teal is the full-rate zone: payments untouched. Coral is the squeeze: you keep under half of each extra dollar. Past it, the keep-rate recovers. We chart the price of each option; what you do with it is entirely yours.

Cents kept per extra $1 (left)
Net family income (right)
Full-rate zone & recovery
The squeeze / marked cliffs

Your next $10,000s Each extra $10,000 from where you are now: what stays with you, and which taper bites.

Every row is money in your pocket. The squeeze makes some rows thinner; only a marked cliff ever makes a row negative.

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.

Try a split , / ,

One partner at home, priced both ways

The honest totals for both set-ups: the second income after childcare and benefit changes, next to one partner at home with childcare at $0 and FTB-B kept. If staying home would let the working partner earn more (overtime, a promotion), add that below. The numbers speak; the choice is entirely yours.

If one partner were home, the other could earn

more a year

…

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

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.

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?

Yes, completely. Everything is calculated in your browser, on your own device. Your income, rent and family details are never sent to us or stored on any server. We couldn't see your numbers even if we wanted to.

Is this financial advice?

No. This is general, factual information to help you understand how Australia's current tax and benefit settings would apply to a family like yours. It doesn't consider your full circumstances and isn't personal financial or tax advice. For advice specific to you, speak to a licensed financial adviser or registered tax agent.

How accurate is it?

It uses current FY2025–26 ATO tax rates and Services Australia thresholds for Family Tax Benefit A & B, Child Care Subsidy and Rent Assistance. It's a careful estimate to guide a decision, not a Centrelink or ATO determination. Every rate and threshold is checked against the official source, and each one is cited in the open rates file.

I negatively gear or salary‑sacrifice, what income do I enter?

Enter your income with those amounts added back. Family payments are tested on adjusted taxable income, not the taxable income on your tax return: Centrelink adds back net investment losses (negative gearing), reportable super contributions and reportable fringe benefits. A $100,000 salary with a $20,000 negative‑gearing loss is taxed on $80,000, but FTB, Child Care Subsidy and Rent Assistance are all tested on $100,000.

Does it tell me to earn less, or to claim more benefits?

Never. It doesn't tell you what to do at all. It only ever shows you what you'd keep at each income, so the decision stays entirely yours.

What does it cost?

The calculator is free. If you'd like the Personalised Family Income Report, a multi‑scenario PDF you can keep and share, that's a one‑off $39, no subscription. It's our early‑access price; it rises as we add features.

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 at least $350,000 (further for higher earners) to show how much of each extra dollar you keep, marks the full-rate zone, the squeeze and the recovery, and flags the genuine cliffs where earning more leaves you worse off. Optional toggles add HELP/HECS repayments (FY2025-26 marginal rates) and the Medicare Levy Surcharge if you have no private hospital cover. 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