We treat Paid Parental Leave as taxable income. This means Parental Leave Pay and Dad and Partner Pay count in your income test for payments from us. Directors fees count towards your income test. They can affect your Centrelink payment.
Parenting Payment is a taxable Centrelink payment.
Taxable income is the amount you receive after you take away all your allowable deductions from your assessable or gross income. Gross income includes: Salary and wages, lump sum payments, money from business or self employment, rent, interest, investments and dividends. partnership and trust distributions.
Payment rates
If you're dependent, the parental means test will apply. If your parents or guardians earn too much, you won't be able to get a payment.
We reassess your parents' or guardians' income each year. This is to see if their income will change your payment. We may assess their income for the current tax year if their income has significantly changed.
When you're independent, your parents' or guardians' income won't affect your payment. You're not independent just because you don't live with your parents or guardians, or they don't support you. If you're 22 or older we'll treat you as permanently independent. We may also do this in certain circumstances.
Exempt income includes: certain Australian Government pensions, such as the. disability support pension paid by Centrelink to a person who is under age-pension age. invalidity service pension paid under the Veterans' Entitlements Act 1986 where the veteran is under age-pension age.
To receive the full dependent Youth Allowance payment rate, your parents' income needs to be below the threshold (currently $56 137 in 2022).
You may be independent for Youth Allowance if you worked full time. You must have worked an average of 30 hours a week for at least 18 months within any 2 year period. You may be independent through work for Youth Allowance if you're a student from a rural or remote area.
If you're younger than 18 and dependent, your parent or guardian will usually get the payment. If you're a dependant, we'll ask for details of your parents' taxable income in September or October each year. The amount you get may change if you or a family member's circumstances change.
Earned income also includes net earnings from self-employment. Earned income does not include amounts such as pensions and annuities, welfare benefits, unemployment compensation, worker's compensation benefits, or social security benefits.
Any gifts you made in the past 5 years may be included in your income and assets tests. If you aren't required to report your income to us regularly, you must tell us about any gifts within 14 days. If you do report regularly, you must tell us on or before your reporting date, of the period when the gift happens.
Deemed income from your investment assets is calculated by multiplying the asset value by the applicable deeming rates. The deeming rates and thresholds effective at 1 July 2022 are: Singles - 0.25% on the first $53,600 of your total investment assets and 2.25% on your assets over $53,600.
In Australia, gifts and inheritances are generally not considered as income and don't require you to pay any Australian taxes. We define a gift with the following criteria: there is a transfer of money or property.
You can have income up to a certain amount before we reduce your payment. If your income is above the cut-off point, Parenting Payment won't be payable.
If you're a single parent and your child is between 8 and 14 years old and you're on Jobseeker, this will benefit you to the tune of $176.90 a fortnight. The changes are set to kick in from 20 September 2023. The base rate for the parenting payment (single) is $922.10 per fortnight until your child turns 14.
Your home is not counted as an asset when calculating pension or payment, but it does affect how your pension or payment is assessed under the assets test. If you are a homeowner your asset value limit is lower than someone who does not own their residence.
If you are financially independent, you are responsible for your own expenses. You no longer rely on a parent, guardian, or another family member to provide money for you or cover your bills. You are paying your daily expenses and planning for the future, and you are able to meet your basic needs.
Job seekers getting Youth Allowance
If you get Youth Allowance as a job seeker you can earn money and still get your payment. We'll start to reduce your payment if your income is more than $150 a fortnight.
You can get the loan up to 2 times a year, once each loan period. Loans are tax free and you don't need to declare them to us as income for your regular student payment. You have to pay back the loan once you start earning a certain amount of income.
If you don't report every 2 weeks your payment will stop. We'll tell you which dates you must report on and when your income reporting will start. If you report late, your payment will be late. If your Centrelink online account is linked to myGov, sign in now to report your income.
Inheritances are exempt from the Centrelink income test. This is true for any lump sum payment you receive that is: unlikely to happen again.
Different lump sums are treated in different ways by Centrelink. A lump sum is any one-off amount of money that you may receive for a variety of reasons. Some of these lump sum payments will be included in your income test for the Age Pensions and they may affect the amount of pension that you receive from Centrelink.
If you're an excepted person, or only earn excepted income and you're an Australian resident, the first $18,200 you earn is tax free. If you're a minor and not an excepted person, you pay a higher rate of tax for income that is not excepted income.