Make a Claim

Help for Low Income Supplement or Low Income Family Supplement Income

• Make a Claim Help Index
• Financial year
• Taxable income
• Reportable fringe benefits
• Reportable superannuation contributions
• Total net investment losses
• Tax free pensions and benefits
• Foreign income
• Tax exempt foreign income
• Child support paid
• Assessed tax payable
• Tax notice of assessment
• Income limit
• Evidence of all taxable and non taxable income
• Dependent children
• Family Tax Benefit

Financial year

The financial year is the period from 1 July to 30 June.

• Current financial year is a financial year that has started and not yet finished.
• A past financial year is a financial year that finished before the current financial year started.

Taxable income

Your taxable income is displayed on your tax Notice of Assessment.

Taxable income includes the following:

• taxable income from salary and wages, including overtime payment(s), pay rises and bonuses. Remember to DEDUCT work related expenses from your gross income.
• taxable income from lump sum payment(s), including maternity, termination and redundancy payments.
• taxable income from business or self-employment, including taxable income from sole-trading and distributions from partnerships, trusts and companies.
• taxable income from investments, including income from banks, credit unions, building societies, dividends from shares, income from managed investments. If you expect to have made a loss, make sure you subtract this from your total estimated income.
• taxable income from real estate, including taxable income from all residential or commercial real estate for which you (and/or your partner) receive rent. This can include houses, a room in your house, units, pasture and boats. If you expect to have made a loss, make sure you subtract this from your total estimated income.
• taxable income from government pensions or benefits, including any amount you received from payments such as Newstart Allowance, Parental Leave Pay, Parenting Payment, Age Pension, Austudy, Disability Support Pension of Age Pension age or Disability Support Pension (Blind) of Age Pension age, Farm Help, Department of Veterans' Affairs payments, including taxable Defence Force Income Support Supplement, Special Benefit and the taxable components of ABSTUDY or Youth Allowance you received for yourself.
• other taxable income, for example superannuation withdrawals, scholarships, capital gains or foreign income on which you pay Australian tax.

Reportable fringe benefits

You need to include fringe benefits (or employer provided benefits) you or your partner gets from your employment such as:

• help to pay your rent or home loan;
• a home phone;
• a car;
• school fees for children;
• your health insurance premiums;
• your child care expenses paid by your employer.

You will find this amount recorded on your Payment Summary (formerly called group certificate) at the end of the financial year. You can ask your employer to tell you the expected amount for the relevant financial year. The amount recorded on a Payment Summary for the financial year ending 30 June (of the current financial year) relates to fringe benefits received between 1 April and 31 March (of the current financial year).

Reportable superannuation contributions

Any reportable superannuation contributions are included as income and used to work out your family assistance. Reportable superannuation contributions include:

• discretionary contributions. Examples of these include: voluntary salary sacrificed contributions, made by you or on your behalf by your employer. These are above those required by law such as an industrial award or the superannuation guarantee (currently nine per cent), and
• total superannuation contributions made by you as a self-employed person, for which you can claim a tax deduction.

Total net investment losses

Investments that will be considered for family assistance purposes may include investments in shares, term deposits or managed funds. Consequently, examples of a 'net investment loss' may include the following:

• borrowing costs (i.e. interest expenses, establishment fees, legal expenses, stamp duty on loan that is taken out to invest in shares where those fees exceed any return on the shares);
• management or fund fees, including ongoing trailing commissions associated with a share investment or managed fund investment where those fees exceed any return on the investment;
• travel expenses or the costs of an industry publication concerning investment or investment strategies. Individuals may claim the costs of travel to meetings with a share broker or the costs of an industry publication relied on in managing a share portfolio as an allowable deduction provided the necessary connection with the earning of income from the investments is established. Where such expenses exceed the investment return, then it is likely the individual will be deemed to have incurred a 'net financial investment loss';
• the total loss incurred on a rental property that you or your partner have or expect to declare on your personal income tax return for the appropriate financial year.

Tax free pensions and benefits

You need to include any income you or your partner get from the following payments from Centrelink or the Department of Veterans' Affairs which are non-taxable:

• Disability Support Pension paid to a person who is not old enough to get the Age Pension.
• Carer payment where both the carer and the person being cared for are not old enough to get Age Pension.
• Wife Pension paid where both the person (and partner if applicable) are not old enough to get Age Pension.

Department of veterans' affairs:

• Invalidity service pension where the recipient is not old enough to get Age Pension.
• Disability Pension, War Widow's and War Widower's Pension.
• Partner Service Pension where both partners are under Age Pension age and the veteran gets an Invalidity Service Pension, or the veteran has died and was getting an Invalidity Service Pension at the time of death.

Do not include the following payments:

Bereavement Payment, Pharmaceutical Allowance, Carer Allowance, Rent Assistance, Remote Area Allowance, Family Tax Benefit Part A, Family Tax Benefit Part B, Child Care Benefit and Maternity Payment.

Foreign income

You need to include income you and your partner earn, derive or receive from a source outside Australia on which you do not pay Australian tax. Where a conversion to Australian dollars is needed, exchange rate as at the relevant financial year needs to be used. For more information on conversion rates contact Centrelink.

Note: Foreign income on which you do pay Australian tax on, must be included as part of your Taxable Income.

Tax exempt foreign income

You need to include any income for qualifying service on a particular approved project (under section 23AF of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936) and/or foreign service (under section 23AG of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936) for a continuous period of 91 days or more. If you get this type of income, it will be reported on your payment summary.

Note: Foreign income on which you do pay Australian tax on, must be included as part of your Taxable Income.

Child support paid

You need to advise of any child support you, or your current partner pay to support your natural or adopted children from a previous relationship. Include child support paid through the Child Support Agency, private child support, non-cash child support, or other amounts such as property settlement.

If you pay child support, the full amount (100%) you pay will be deducted from your total income estimate.

You should keep proof of the child support you pay as you may be asked to show evidence of your claim.

Assessed tax payable

Your assessed tax payable is the total amount of income tax you are required to pay, based on your taxable income, for a given financial year.

If your taxable income for a given financial year is below the tax free threshold, your tax payable will be zero.

Tax notice of assessment

The notice of assessment is an itemised account of the amount of tax you owe on your taxable income. It also contains other details that are not part of the assessment, such as the amount of credit for tax you have already paid throughout the income year.

Income limit

You will satisfy the Income requirement if your accepted adjusted taxable income is less than:

• $30000 if you are not a member of a couple, and do not have a dependent child, at the time of claiming, or
• $45000 if:
  • you are a member of a couple at the time of claiming, and
  • neither you or your partner have a dependent child at the time of claiming, or

  Evidence of all taxable and non taxable income

  If your and/or your partner's taxable income for the assessment year is above the tax-free threshold you will need to lodge a tax return for that financial year.

  If the taxable component of your income is more than the tax-free threshold and you have lodged your tax return, this information will be obtained via a link with the Australian Taxation Office. You will be required to provide us with evidence of your non taxable income.

  If your income is less than the tax free threshold and you are not required to lodge a tax return, you will need to provide other forms of evidence of both your taxable and non taxable income. Other forms of evidence can include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • a statement or letter from your superannuation provider
  • copies of bank statements
  • payslips, or
  • a letter from a company outlining dividends paid.

  Dependent children

  A dependent child for the Low Income Supplement or Low Income Family Supplement is classified as:

  • a child under 16 years of age, and:
    • an adult has legal responsibility, either alone or jointly with another person for the day to day care, welfare and development of you (the young person) and you are in an adult's care, and
    • you are dependent on someone else under the previous point and are wholly or substantially in an adult's care, and
    • you are a full time student, and
    • you do not receive weekly income from any source other than maintenance, of more than the dependency limit, and
    • you do not receive a payment under a Labour Market Program, and
    • you do not receive a social security pension or benefit, or
    • are studying full time at school, university, TAFE, or equivalent level, and
    • do not receive a payment under a Labour Market Program, and
    • do not receive a social security pension or benefit, and
    • do not have personal income from earnings, casual, part time or full time employment that exceeds the personal income limit in the financial year.

    Family Tax Benefit

    Family Tax Benefit is an annual tax benefit to help families with the cost of raising children.

    You will meet the Family Tax Benefit Requirements if:

    • there were 39 weeks or more in the assessment year where you were eligible to be paid Family Tax Benefit (FTB), and
    • you currently have or had a partner, and there was a total of 39 weeks or more in the last financial year where your current partner, previous partner, was eligible to be paid Family Tax Benefit (FTB)
    • you, and your partner (if applicable), are required to have an assessed tax payable of less than $300.