Australian tax · FY2025-26
Working holiday maker tax calculator
For 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 a working holiday maker pays 15% from the first dollar up to $45,000, then 30%. It applies to a 417 or 462 visa holder, whatever their residency would otherwise be.
FY2025-26Other years
Calculator
This is an estimate, not advice. It applies the published rate to what you enter; whether the method suits your circumstances, and whether your records support the figures, is a question for your tax agent.
Who is on this scale
A holder of a 417 (Working Holiday) or 462 (Work and Holiday) visa, for the income earned while on it. It is decided by the visa, not by the residency test — so a backpacker who has been here long enough to be a tax resident is still on this scale, and that is the single most common misunderstanding about it.
Income earned on a different visa in the same year is not on this scale. A year that spans both produces a return with each part on its own rates, which is past what a one-box calculator can do.
The FY2025-26 working holiday maker scale
| Australian income | Rate on that slice |
|---|---|
| $0 – $44,999 | 15% |
| $45,000 – $134,999 | 30% |
| $135,000 – $189,999 | 37% |
| $190,000 and above | 45% |
Each rate applies only to the slice inside its own band. There is no tax-free threshold, and no Medicare levy — the levy is a resident’s, and a working holiday maker is not on it whatever their residency.
The employer’s registration is worth real money
An employer must register with the ATO to withhold at 15%. One who has not must withhold at foreign-resident rates from the first dollar — on $55,000 that is the difference between $9,750 and $16,500.
The scale still applies at lodgement either way. Over-withholding is not lost; it comes back as a refund when the return goes in, which is the reason to lodge even on a season’s work.
Super, and what happens to it
Super is payable on this work like any other. On leaving Australia permanently a working holiday maker can claim it back as a departing Australia superannuation payment — which is taxed at its own rate, higher for a working holiday maker than for anyone else, and is not on the scale above.
It is a separate calculation from this page and worth getting advice on before the visa expires rather than after.
Preparing returns, not just your own?
BeforeMay builds the working paper behind the return from the client’s own documents — including the visa and part-year facts that decide which scale applies.
Start a case freeWhere does client data go?
Three returns free. No card.
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