Salary packaging with a HECS-HELP debt
It’s important to know that you could still potentially benefit from salary packaging even if you have a HELP (Higher Education Loan program) or HECS (Higher Education Contribution Scheme) debt.
There are some important points to be aware of:
- It’s important to remember that salary packaging may affect your current taxable threshold, which could change the way the ATO calculates your repayments.
- The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) assesses you on your ‘adjusted taxable income’ when working out how much you should pay in HELP or HECS repayments. So with an increased gross salary, you may need to increase your regular HELP or HECS repayments, otherwise you may end up with a bill at tax time.
- If you choose to go ahead and salary package, you’ll need to ask your payroll department to deduct additional HECS-HELP repayments.
How much? Well, Maxxia has an online HECS-HELP calculator which will estimate the additional amounts to request through your payroll, as well as your potential tax savings as a result of salary packaging. - You can crunch the numbers for yourself.