SAPTO Calculator 2026-27

Worked examples, with the arithmetic.

The same sums the tool runs, on real figures. Every number below is computed by the tested engine from the published rates, so the prose and the tool can never disagree.

$39,000 - $34,919 shading-out       = $4,081
$4,081 x 12.5c                      = $510.125
$2,230 - $510.125                   = $1,719.875
rounded up to the dollar            = $1,720

combined rebate income              = $33,650
half, for the income test           = $16,825.00, under $43,810
($33,650 - $30,994) x 12.5c         = $332.00
$1,602 - $332.00                    = $1,270

combined $54,020 + $25,677          = $79,697
half, for the income test           = $39,848.50, under $43,810
partner on $54,020                  = $0, own income over the cut-out
partner on $25,677                  = $1,602, under $30,994

spouse's unused offset              = $2,040 - ($10,000 - $6,000) x 0.15 = $1,440
rebate threshold, steps A to O      = $39,912
($48,000 - $39,912) x 12.5c         = $1,011
$2,040 + $1,440 - $1,011            = $2,469

income tax                          = $3,120.00
less low income tax offset          = $625.00, leaving $2,495.00
less SAPTO of $1,860                = $635.00
Medicare levy, SAPTO thresholds     = $0.00
total with SAPTO                    = $635.00
total without it                    = $3,275.00

Is this accurate, and how does it work?

The method is published rather than described. Nothing here is a black box, and the limits are listed as plainly as the workings.

1. 1Check that you are eligible. Two conditions, both needed. The first is the pension condition: you received an Age Pension, Carer Payment, Education Entry Payment, Parenting Payment (single), age service pension, income support supplement, Veteran Payment or partner service pension, or a Disability Support Pension or invalidity service pension once you are age pension age. Reaching age pension age, which is 67, and being eligible for the Age Pension also counts if you did not claim it or failed its income or assets test, as long as you meet a residence condition such as 10 years of residence with 5 of them continuous. There is a matching veteran pension age test. The second condition is the income test below. Someone in jail for the whole income year cannot claim.
2. 2Work out rebate income. Rebate income is taxable income, leaving out any assessable first home super saver released amount, plus reportable super contributions, total net investment losses and the adjusted fringe benefits total. Fringe benefits from a hospital, charity or other employer exempt under section 57A count at 53%, rounded down to the dollar. Unlike adjusted taxable income, it does not add tax-free government pensions or foreign income. For a retiree with no salary sacrifice, investment losses or fringe benefits, rebate income and taxable income are the same figure.
3. 3Apply the income test for your situation. A single person needs rebate income under the cut-out, $53,874 in 2026-27 and $52,759 in 2025-26. A couple is tested on half their combined rebate income against the per-partner cut-out, $44,663 in 2026-27 and $43,810 in 2025-26, which is a combined $87,620. A couple who had to live apart because of illness, or because one of them was in a nursing home, use $51,087 and $50,052. Passing the test as a couple does not guarantee each partner an offset: the amount is always worked on each partner's own rebate income.
4. 4Taper from the shading-out threshold. Up to the shading-out threshold you get the maximum: $2,230 single, $1,602 each in a couple, $2,040 each when apart due to illness. Above it the offset falls by 12.5c for every dollar of your own rebate income, and the result is rounded up to the whole dollar, so it reaches nil exactly at the cut-out. The 2026-27 shading-out thresholds are $36,034, $31,847 and $34,767. On $39,000 a single pensioner gets $1,720 for 2025-26 and $1,860 for 2026-27.
5. 5Move what a spouse cannot use. Where both partners are eligible, the ATO transfers unused offset between them when it assesses both returns. All of a spouse's offset is available where their taxable income is $6,000 or less. Above that, the unused amount is their offset less 15c for every dollar of taxable income and exempt pension income over $6,000. The transfer adds to your maximum and raises the rebate threshold the 12.5c taper starts from, worked out in the ATO's steps A to O from the tax-free threshold, the two lowest tax rates and three amounts set in the regulations: $445, $37,000 and 1.5%.
6. 6Take it off income tax with the low income tax offset. SAPTO is non-refundable: it reduces income tax to nil and no further, and it does not reduce the Medicare levy. The Low Income Tax Offset applies as well, on taxable income, and together the two mean a single pensioner whose rebate income equals taxable income pays no income tax up to $36,961 in 2026-27. Being entitled to at least $1 of SAPTO also moves the Medicare levy to higher thresholds, $44,268 and $55,335 for an individual, the 2025-26 figures carried forward because the ATO has not published 2026-27 ones. The family test and the rest of the levy are on the Medicare Levy Calculator. The Income Tax Calculator does not apply SAPTO, so for a senior it overstates the tax.

SAPTO rates and thresholds, 2025-26 and 2026-27.

Rebate income below the shading-out threshold earns the maximum. Above it the offset falls by 12.5c a dollar, and at the cut-out it is nil. Couple figures are for each partner. Both years are as the ATO publishes them: the maximums are unchanged, and the 2026-27 thresholds rose with the lower 15c tax rate.

For a couple the cut-out is tested on half the combined rebate income, so in 2025-26 a couple living together needed combined rebate income under $87,620, and a couple apart due to illness under $100,104.

SAPTO by rebate income, 2026-27.

The offset on your own rebate income, rounded up to the dollar as the ATO does. A couple must also pass the income test on half their combined rebate income, and nothing is transferred between partners here.

Who can get SAPTO.

The pension condition is met by receiving any of these during the income year. Only the listed payments count.

• Age Pension
• Carer Payment
• Disability Support Pension, once you are age pension age
• Education Entry Payment
• Parenting Payment (single)
• age service pension
• income support supplement
• Veteran Payment
• invalidity service pension, once you are age pension age
• partner service pension

It is also met by someone who was age pension age, 67, and eligible for the Age Pension but did not receive it, because they did not claim or did not pass the income or assets test, if they also meet a condition such as 10 years of Australian residence with 5 of them continuous, a refugee or humanitarian arrival, or an age pension under an international social security agreement. A veteran who meets the veteran pension age test and is eligible for a Veterans’ Affairs pension, allowance or benefit qualifies in the same way.

SAPTO, LITO and the Medicare levy together, 2026-27.

Where rebate income equals taxable income and nothing is transferred, this is how far income goes before any income tax is payable, and where the Medicare levy starts for someone entitled to SAPTO. The 2026-27 levy thresholds are the 2025-26 figures carried forward, as the ATO has not published 2026-27 ones.

Without SAPTO the same person would start paying income tax much sooner: the Low Income Tax Offset on its own covers income only a few thousand dollars past the Tax-Free Threshold.

What this does not cover.

• It does not test the pension condition. Age, residence, the pension or allowance you receive and the veteran rules are for you to check against the ATO conditions above.
• Rebate income is entered as one figure. The worksheet that builds it, from taxable income, the first home super saver amount, reportable super contributions, investment losses and fringe benefits, is on the ATO income tests page.
• It applies one situation for the whole year. Where more than one applied, the ATO uses whichever gives the greatest entitlement, and myTax 2026 says to use code A rather than B where a spouse's taxable income was $18,334 or more, and A rather than D at $12,494 or more.
• The spouse transfer uses the spouse's own offset worked from their rebate income, and their taxable income plus exempt pension income. The separate formula for a foreign resident spouse is not modelled. For 2026-27 the transfer parameters are the 2025-26 ones carried forward, as the ATO states them without a year.
• The Medicare levy is the individual test on your own taxable income. The family thresholds, which apply only above the individual upper threshold, are not modelled.
• Other offsets, such as the beneficiary tax offset, the zone tax offset and the invalid and invalid carer offset, are not applied. The ATO has a calculator that works out the beneficiary offset and SAPTO together.
• It assumes you are an Australian resident for tax purposes for the whole year. The Age Pension Calculator applies the offset to wages and the Age Pension together, a fortnight at a time.

Where these figures come from.

• ATO, Seniors and pensioners tax offset: rates and thresholds, 2025-26, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
• ATO, SAPTO rates and rebate income thresholds for 2026-27, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-05-13. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
• ATO, Transferring unused SAPTO between spouses, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Not yet published for 2026-27: this is the prior year’s figure carried forward and labelled as such, never estimated. It is corrected as soon as the ATO publishes.
• ATO, Income tests: rebate income, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
• ATO, Low income tax offset, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-08. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
• ATO, Tax rates for Australian residents, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-08-13. Retrieved 2026-09-02.
• ATO, Medicare levy reduction for low-income earners, seniors and pensioners, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-30. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Not yet published for 2026-27: this is the prior year’s figure carried forward and labelled as such, never estimated. It is corrected as soon as the ATO publishes.
• ATO, Medicare levy reduction for low-income earners, the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-30. Retrieved 2026-09-02. Not yet published for 2026-27: this is the prior year’s figure carried forward and labelled as such, never estimated. It is corrected as soon as the ATO publishes.
• ATO, myTax 2026 Seniors and pensioners (includes self-funded retirees), the source gave its own last updated date as 2026-06-01. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
• ATO, Withholding declaration, the source gave its own last updated date as 2024-12-11. Retrieved 2026-09-27.

Every rate this site uses is listed on the Methodology page.

Common questions.

Related pages.

• Low Income Tax OffsetWork out your low income tax offset for 2026-27. Up to $700, tapering to nil at $66,667, with the tax it saves and why most of it arrives at tax time.
• Income Tax CalculatorWork out income tax, the Medicare levy and the low income tax offset on any salary for 2026-27, with the bracket-by-bracket working shown.
• Tax Return CalculatorEstimate your 2025-26 tax refund or bill from your myGov income statement, with income tax, the offset, Medicare levy, surcharge and HELP shown line by line.
• Tax-Free ThresholdThe tax-free threshold is $18,200 for 2026-27. See the tax withheld from each pay with and without it, who should claim it, and what claiming it twice costs.
• Zone Tax Offset CalculatorWork out the zone tax offset: $338 in Zone A, $57 in Zone B and $1,173 in a special area, plus a share for children, with the 183-day residence rule.

Every calculator on this site is listed on the Wage Calculator page.