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Estimate your seniors and pensioners tax offset and how much of it actually reduces your tax.
Your income after deductions, for the year you picked. Leave out any assessable first home super saver released amount. If your taxable income is a loss, enter 0.
The reportable employer super contributions on your income statement, such as salary sacrificed to super, plus any personal super contributions you claim as a deduction.
The non-exempt amount on your income statement. It counts in full.
The exempt amount on your income statement, from an employer exempt from FBT under section 57A, such as a public hospital or public benevolent institution. 53% of it counts, rounded down to the dollar.
Net financial investment and net rental property losses.
You get an Age Pension, Carer Payment, Parenting Payment (single), a service pension or one of the other payments the ATO lists. Or you are age-pension age and eligible for the Age Pension, but did not get it because you did not claim or did not meet the income or assets test, so self-funded retirees can qualify. Residence conditions apply, and veterans have a matching rule. This calculator cannot check this for you.
Enter your income and tick the pension or allowance condition to estimate your offset.
Enter your taxable income and the items that make up rebate income. Couples also enter their spouse’s rebate income, because the cut-out test is on the pair.
This is the ATO’s own example for 2025-26: a single person with a rebate income of $39,000. That is $4,081 above the $34,919 shading-out threshold.
At 12.5 cents for each dollar over, the $2,230 maximum falls, and the ATO rounds the result up to $1,720.
The same income in 2026-27 gives $1,860, because the shading-out threshold moved up to $36,034 when the lowest tax rate fell.
Estimates only. Not financial or tax advice. Full disclaimer for your rights and our limitations of liability.
This calculator exists to show you the arithmetic. It applies published Australian rates, thresholds and formulas to the numbers you enter and shows the working, so you can check it. That is all it does — it produces a number and describes what the number is. It does not recommend anything and it holds no opinion about any financial product.
What can move this result
This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. Before you make a financial decision, consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not, and we cannot advise you.
| Your situation | Maximum offset | Starts reducing above | Reaches nothing at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single | $2,230 | $36,034 | $53,874 |
| Each member of a couple | $1,602 | $31,847 | $44,663 |
| Each member of a couple apart because of illness | $2,040 | $34,767 | $51,087 |
These are the latest figures the ATO has published. Picking a later year uses the same offset figures, with that year’s own tax rates, and the result says so.
This calculator is not intended to be relied on for the purposes of making a decision in relation to a financial product. Before you make a financial decision, consider obtaining advice from someone who holds an Australian Financial Services Licence. We do not, and we cannot advise you.
SAPTO is a tax offset for eligible seniors and pensioners, including self-funded retirees who meet the condition. It reduces the income tax you owe and the ATO applies it when your return is assessed. It can also reach your pay if you claim it on a Withholding declaration, which puts your payer on the ATO’s seniors and pensioners tax table. The table is for people aged 67 or older at the end of the financial year, and for veterans on a service pension or war widows and widowers on an income support supplement who are at least 60. Anyone else gets the offset when their return is assessed.
Two things decide it: whether you meet the pension or allowance condition, and your rebate income. This calculator works out the second and asks you to confirm the first.
SAPTO is a tax offset for people who meet the pension or allowance condition and whose income is under the cut-out. You meet it if you get a listed Australian Government pension or allowance. You can also meet it at age-pension age if you were eligible for the Age Pension but did not get it because you did not claim or did not meet the income or assets test, which is how self-funded retirees can qualify. For 2026-27 the maximum is $2,230 for a single person and $1,602 for each member of a couple.
The offset starts at the maximum for your situation and reduces by 12.5 cents for every dollar of your rebate income above the shading-out threshold. The ATO rounds the result up to the nearest whole dollar. For a single person in 2026-27, it starts reducing above $36,034 and reaches nothing at $53,874.
Rebate income is your taxable income, leaving out any assessable first home super saver released amount, plus your adjusted fringe benefits total, your reportable super contributions and your total net investment loss. Reportable fringe benefits count in full, except amounts from an employer exempt from FBT under section 57A, which count at 53%. It is not the same as taxable income, so an offset worked out on taxable income alone can be too high.
No. SAPTO is non-refundable. It can reduce the income tax you owe to zero, but any part left over is not paid to you. If you have a spouse, you may be able to transfer the unused part to them, and the ATO works out any transfer when you both lodge. The Medicare levy is a separate amount you pay on top of income tax.
There are two tests. First, half of your combined rebate income has to be under the couple cut-out, which is $44,663 for 2026-27. Then the amount is worked out on your own rebate income, so one partner can receive the offset while the other receives nothing.
The ATO allows it in some cases, but this calculator does not include it. The transfer depends on your spouse’s exempt pension income and their own SAPTO details, and it can only increase your offset, so the figure here is a floor.
The ATO has published SAPTO figures up to 2026-27, and the table here uses them. Later years carry those figures forward and say so with the result. The ATO has not published replacements yet. The shading-out threshold is expected to rise as the lowest tax rate falls, so anyone above it is likely to get more than shown for those years.