Bonus Tax Calculator
Enter your salary and bonus to see the 2026-27 tax on the bonus, the marginal rate doing the damage and how much lands in your account.
- There is no special bonus tax rate. A bonus is ordinary income taxed with your salary at your marginal rate.
- ATO Schedule 5 caps withholding on the bonus itself at 47% of the payment, even for top-bracket earners.
| Salary alone | Salary + bonus | Difference | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross income | $90,000 | $95,000 | $5,000 |
| Tax and Medicare | $19,320 | $20,920 | $1,600 |
| Take-home | $70,680 | $74,080 | $3,400 |
Annual liability at 2026-27 resident rates with the tax-free threshold claimed and no HELP debt. Payroll withholds per pay event under ATO Schedule 5, so the payslip figure can differ; the difference settles when you lodge.
The estimate treats the bonus as extra income in the same year, which is exactly how the ATO assesses it. More pay tools live on the all calculators page.
How a bonus is taxed in Australia
A bonus is ordinary income, taxed at your marginal rate on top of everything else you earn in the year. On a $90,000 salary, a $5,000 bonus attracts $1,600 in extra tax for 2026-27 and leaves $3,400 in hand: 32.0% of the payment, which is the 30% bracket plus the 2% Medicare levy.
Where your salary sits in the 2026-27 tax brackets sets the rate. A bonus that pushes you across a bracket boundary is taxed in slices, part at the old rate and part at the new one, so crossing a threshold never costs you more than the extra income.
What your payslip does: ATO Schedule 5
Employers do not guess the withholding on a bonus. ATO Schedule 5, the tax table for back payments, commissions and bonuses, sets the rules. A payment for work in a single pay period is simply added to that period's earnings and the regular table applies. A payment covering more than one pay period, or no defined period, is withheld under Method A or Method B(ii).
Method B(ii) spreads the bonus across every pay period in the financial year: payroll works out withholding on your average earnings, adds one period's share of the bonus, takes the difference and multiplies it back across 52 weekly, 26 fortnightly or 12 monthly periods. In effect the bonus is annualised, which is why this calculator's annual-difference approach lands close to the payroll figure without reproducing it cent for cent.
Two guardrails apply. Withholding on the additional payment is capped at 47% of that payment, and any over-withholding comes back at assessment. The per-period detail sits in the Schedule 5 tax table.
Worked examples at common salaries
| Salary | Bonus | Tax on bonus | Rate applied | Bonus in hand |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $60,000 | $5,000 | $1,675 | 33.5% | $3,325 |
| $90,000 | $5,000 | $1,600 | 32.0% | $3,400 |
| $90,000 | $10,000 | $3,200 | 32.0% | $6,800 |
| $130,000 | $10,000 | $3,550 | 35.5% | $6,450 |
2026-27 resident rates, tax-free threshold claimed, no HELP debt. The rate applied is the bracket rate plus Medicare, with the low income tax offset taper lifting it at lower salaries.
To see the bonus year as a whole rather than the payment in isolation, run salary plus bonus through the take-home pay calculator.
Back pay, commissions and lump sums
Back pay tax follows the same rules. A back payment of wages, an underpayment correction or a lump sum in arrears is withheld under Schedule 5 and assessed in the year you receive it. Commissions covering several pay periods are handled identically, so the calculator above works for those payments too: enter the back payment or commission in the bonus field.
Termination money is a different regime. Redundancy payouts and unused leave paid on exit carry their own caps and concessional rates, so use the redundancy tax calculator for those instead.
Frequently asked questions
How much tax comes out of a $5,000 bonus?
Are bonuses taxed at 50% in Australia?
Why did my payslip take more tax than this calculator shows?
Is back pay taxed like a bonus?
Does a bonus increase my HELP repayment?
Does the 47% cap mean I never pay more than 47%?
Sources
- ATO: Schedule 5: Tax table for back payments, commissions, bonuses and similar payments (NAT 3348, published 17 June 2026)
- ATO: Schedule 5: Working out the withholding amount (Method A, Method B(ii) and the 47% withholding limit)
- ATO: Tax rates for Australian residents
Narelle Hartigan is a CPA-qualified tax accountant with over a decade of experience in Australian personal taxation and payroll. She founded PAYG Calculator Australia to make tax withholding easy for every Australian worker to understand.