Key takeaways
- The 2026-27 working holiday maker rate is 15% on the first $45,000, then 30%, 37% and 45%. No tax-free threshold.
- A registered employer withholds 15%. An unregistered employer must withhold 30% from the first dollar.
- No tax file number quoted means 45% withheld, with 28 days to supply one after you say you have applied.
- A foreign resident working holiday maker pays no Medicare levy.
- You do not have to lodge if all your income was working holiday maker wages and taxable income was under $45,001. You do have to lodge to claim deductions or a refund.
- Super claimed on departure is taxed at 65% for anyone who has held a 417 or 462 visa.
What is the tax rate on a working holiday visa?
15% of every dollar up to $45,000, then 30% from $45,001 to $135,000, 37% to $190,000 and 45% above that. Tax applies from the first dollar because working holiday makers get no tax-free threshold. The scale comes from ATO Schedule 15, published 17 June 2026 and stated to apply to payments made from 1 July 2026, and it covers subclass 417 and 462 holders whose employer has registered with the ATO.
The 15% band is the whole reason the working holiday maker scale exists. Under the non-resident tax rates, a foreign resident with no working holiday visa has 30% withheld from the first dollar for 2026-27, so a backpacker on the correct scale is withheld at half that rate until their earnings pass $45,000. The full set of 2026-27 scales, resident, foreign resident and working holiday maker side by side, is on the 2026-27 tax brackets page, and the rest of the withholding rules are set out across our PAYG guides.
Working holiday maker tax rates 2026-27
Four bands, starting at 15% and ending at 45%. Only the income inside each band is taxed at that band's rate, so someone on $60,000 pays 15% on the first $45,000 and 30% on the $15,000 above it, not 30% on the lot.
| Taxable income (2026-27) | Rate | Tax on this income |
|---|---|---|
| $0–$45,000 | 15% | 15c for each $1 |
| $45,001–$135,000 | 30% | $6,750 plus 30c for each $1 over $45,000 |
| $135,001–$190,000 | 37% | $33,750 plus 37c for each $1 over $135,000 |
| $190,001 and over | 45% | $54,100 plus 45c for each $1 over $190,000 |
The rates and the band boundaries are the ATO's, taken from Table A of Schedule 15 for 2026-27. The cumulative dollar figures in the third column are our arithmetic off those bands ($45,000 at 15% gives $6,750, and so on) rather than a table the ATO has published against a 2026-27 label. At the time of writing, the ATO's annual working holiday maker rates page still shows 2025-26 as its most recent year, which is why every 2026-27 figure on this page traces to Schedule 15.
One rate sits outside the table. If you have not given your employer a tax file number, Schedule 15 requires 45% to be withheld from every payment, cents ignored, no matter how little you earn.
How much tax you actually pay: worked examples
On $30,000 of working holiday earnings you pay $4,500 of tax for 2026-27 and keep $25,500, which is $86.54 of tax a week. Anything up to $45,000 is a flat 15%, so the effective rate does not move until you cross that line.
| Annual earnings | Tax for the year | Take-home | Effective rate | Tax per week | Tax per fortnight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $20,000 | $3,000 | $17,000 | 15.00% | $57.69 | $115.38 |
| $25,000 | $3,750 | $21,250 | 15.00% | $72.12 | $144.23 |
| $30,000 | $4,500 | $25,500 | 15.00% | $86.54 | $173.08 |
| $40,000 | $6,000 | $34,000 | 15.00% | $115.38 | $230.77 |
| $45,000 | $6,750 | $38,250 | 15.00% | $129.81 | $259.62 |
| $50,000 | $8,250 | $41,750 | 16.50% | $158.65 | $317.31 |
| $60,000 | $11,250 | $48,750 | 18.75% | $216.35 | $432.69 |
| $70,000 | $14,250 | $55,750 | 20.36% | $274.04 | $548.08 |
These are annual figures. Your employer withholds per pay period by applying the coefficient for the band you are in to that pay, so a payslip can land a dollar either side of the annual arithmetic. Schedule 15 rounds each result to the nearest dollar, with 50 cents rounding up. For your own income and pay cycle, select the working holiday maker option in the PAYG calculator, or compare it against resident figures in the take-home pay calculator.
Which visas count as a working holiday maker
Subclass 417 (Working Holiday) and subclass 462 (Work and Holiday). Schedule 15 also covers certain bridging visas, but only where all three of these hold: the bridging visa was granted under the Migration Act 1958 in relation to an application for a 417 or 462, the Minister has not yet decided that application, and the most recent non-bridging visa granted was a 417 or 462.
Workers under the Seasonal Worker Programme, the Pacific Labour Scheme and the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme are not working holiday makers and Schedule 15 does not apply to them. Employers can confirm any visa through Home Affairs' Visa Entitlement Verification Online (VEVO) service.
The visa is what matters, not the job. Schedule 15 covers every payment to a working holiday maker: wages, allowances, commissions, bonuses, back payments, unused leave, return to work payments and the taxable component of a termination payment. If the working relationship makes you an employee, the working holiday maker rates apply even if you gave the employer an ABN.
Registered employers, unregistered employers, and why some backpackers are taxed 30%
If your employer registered with the ATO as an employer of working holiday makers, they withhold 15% on the first $45,000 they pay you in the income year. If they did not register, they are required to withhold at foreign resident rates, which the ATO states as 30% from every dollar up to $135,000. On $1,000 of weekly pay that is $150 against $300.
The ATO's own two examples make the point cleanly. Louie holds a 417 visa and works five days at $200 a day for a registered employer. His first pay is $1,000 and $150 is withheld. Aleks also holds a 417 visa and also earns $1,000 in his first week, but his employer has not registered, so $300 is withheld.
Registration is not optional for the employer. They must already be registered for PAYG withholding, and they must register as an employer of working holiday makers before making the first payment to you. It is done through the ATO's online working holiday maker employer registration form, through a registered tax or BAS agent, or by phone, and the registration shows on the Australian Business Register. The ATO says penalties may apply to an employer who hires a 417 or 462 holder without registering, but it does not publish an amount. The registration steps for the underlying withholding role are in how to register for PAYG withholding.
Schedule 15 tells each employer to track the total payments it has made to you for the income year. Two registered employers therefore each run their own 15% band up to $45,000, which means a working holiday maker with two jobs can be under-withheld across the year and face a bill at assessment. The ATO does not spell this case out, so treat it as the arithmetic consequence of the per-employer wording and check your combined position before you lodge.
What happens if you do not give your employer a TFN
45% is withheld from every payment, with cents ignored. Schedule 15 applies that rate to a working holiday maker who has not quoted a tax file number, has not claimed an exemption from quoting one and has not told the employer they have applied for one. If you state on the declaration that you have applied, you have 28 days to hand the number over. After that the employer must withhold 45% unless the ATO tells them otherwise.
None of that money disappears. On $25,000 of earnings, 45% withholding takes $11,250 against a real liability of $3,750, and the $7,500 difference comes back once you lodge. You still receive an income statement or payment summary showing the payments with gross payment type H, which is the code that tells the ATO the income was earned as a working holiday maker.
How the TFN declaration tells your employer you are a working holiday maker
Question 8 of the tax file number declaration asks whether you are an Australian resident for tax purposes or a working holiday maker. On a 417 or 462 visa you print "X" in the working holiday maker box. Question 9 asks whether you want to claim the tax-free threshold, and the ATO instruction for working holiday makers is to answer No.
The employer's obligation does not hang on the box. Schedule 15 states that even if a worker does not indicate working holiday maker status on the declaration, the employer still has to withhold using Table A provided a valid tax file number was given. If you stop being a working holiday maker part way through the year, your employer issues two payment summaries for that year, one for each period.
Do working holiday makers pay the Medicare levy?
No, so long as you are a foreign resident for tax purposes, which the ATO describes as the normal position for a working holiday maker. Foreign residents are not required to pay the Medicare levy, and a foreign resident for the full year claims a full exemption on the tax return as exemption category 2. The 15% withheld under Schedule 15 contains no levy component.
Employers are told the same thing from the other direction. Schedule 15 instructs them not to make any adjustment to withholding if a working holiday maker lodges a Medicare levy variation declaration or claims a tax offset on a withholding declaration. The narrow exception runs through residency: a working holiday maker who is an Australian resident for tax purposes can claim the Medicare levy adjustments and offsets they are entitled to at lodgement, and may have to pay the 2% levy. How the levy and its surcharge work is covered in the Medicare levy guide.
Do you have to lodge a tax return on a working holiday visa?
Not always. The ATO says you do not need to lodge a tax return or a non-lodgment advice if both of these apply: all of your income was earned as salary or wages while you were a working holiday maker, and your total taxable income for the income year was less than $45,001. You do need to lodge if you want to claim any deductions, and you should lodge if too much was withheld.
The ATO works it with Marjorie, who was in Australia for the whole of 2024-25, was not a resident for tax purposes, worked for a number of employers, earned $25,000 and had $3,750 withheld. Because her taxable income is under $45,001 and all of it was working holiday maker wages, she is not required to lodge.
When you do lodge, the Australian income year runs 1 July to 30 June and the standard self-lodgement window is 1 July to 31 October. Anyone who earned income on a 417 or 462 at any point in the year has to complete the working holiday maker net income question, question A4. Label D is your working holiday maker income less the deductions that relate to earning it, floored at zero. Label E is your home country, unless you are also a national of Chile, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, Turkey or the United Kingdom, in which case you write that country instead.
How to get your tax back as a working holiday maker
A refund happens when more was withheld through the year than the working holiday maker scale actually charges. That is almost always one of two situations: the employer was not registered and withheld 30%, or no tax file number was quoted and they withheld 45%. Both are fixed at lodgement, not by asking the employer for the money back.
| $25,000 earned in 2026-27 | Withheld | Actual tax | Refund on lodgement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Registered employer, TFN given | $3,750 | $3,750 | $0 |
| Employer not registered (30%) | $7,500 | $3,750 | $3,750 |
| No TFN quoted (45%) | $11,250 | $3,750 | $7,500 |
Start by checking what each employer actually withheld. Most report through Single Touch Payroll, so the figures arrive in your income statement in myGov rather than on a paper payment summary, and working holiday maker income carries the H code. Add the withheld amounts up, compare them against the table in the 2026-27 rates table, and put the numbers through the tax refund calculator before you lodge. Processing times, and what slows a refund down, are set out in how long a tax refund takes. You need an Australian bank account to receive it.
Leaving Australia before 30 June: lodging early
Early lodgement is possible, but only on paper and only in narrow circumstances. You have to be a foreign resident for tax purposes, be leaving Australia permanently, and expect to stop deriving Australian-sourced income other than interest, dividend and royalty income. Processing a paper early lodgement takes up to 50 business days.
You cannot lodge early if you are not leaving permanently, if you will keep receiving Australian-sourced income, or if you have a HELP, AASL or VET Student Loan debt. In those cases you wait for the normal 1 July to 31 October window. That is not a problem from overseas: myTax works from anywhere if the ATO is linked to your myGov account, and the refund goes to an Australian bank account.
Super on a working holiday visa and the DASP on departure
Your employer must pay superannuation for you on the same terms as any other employee, at the super guarantee rate of 12% of ordinary time earnings that the ATO has published as applying from 1 July 2025, and must offer you a choice of fund. When you leave Australia and your visa ceases, you can claim that super as a departing Australia superannuation payment. For anyone who has held a 417 or 462 visa, the DASP is taxed at 65%.
| DASP component | Ordinary rate | Working holiday maker rate |
|---|---|---|
| Tax-free component | Nil | Nil |
| Taxable component, taxed element | 35% | 65% |
| Taxable component, untaxed element | 45% | 65% |
The 65% rate attaches to the person, not the period. If your fund finds any part of the balance came from contributions made while you held a working holiday visa, the ATO says the working holiday maker rate applies to the entire payment, including super earned later on a different visa. It does not matter when the working holiday visa was held.
To claim, you must have accumulated super on a temporary resident visa (subclasses 405 and 410 excepted), your visa must have ceased, you must have left Australia and hold no other active Australian visa, and you must not be an Australian or New Zealand citizen or an Australian permanent resident. Claims cannot be made until after you leave. Payment is generally made within 28 days of a complete application. Balances of $5,000 or more may need certified identity documents and a Certification of Immigration Status from Home Affairs, which carries a fee. Leave it for six months or more after departure with a ceased visa and the fund transfers the money to the ATO as unclaimed super, where you can still claim it.
A final tax is withheld when the DASP is paid, so the payment is not assessable income and does not go in your tax return. To see what your employer should have been paying in the first place, use the super guarantee calculator at the 12% rate.
When a working holiday maker is taxed as an Australian resident
Only in one situation: you are both an Australian resident for tax purposes and a national of an eligible non-discrimination article country. Those countries are Chile, Finland, Germany, Israel (for 2020-21 and later income years), Japan, Norway, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Where it applies, you pay the lower of the two outcomes, resident or working holiday maker. Iceland's treaty is the one that excludes the working holiday maker rate from its non-discrimination article.
This comes from Addy v Commissioner of Taxation, decided by the High Court on 3 November 2021 in the taxpayer's favour. The ATO adds that the decision has no impact on employers: your employer keeps withholding at 15% unless the ATO issues a PAYG withholding variation notice.
Residency is the hard part. The Commissioner's longstanding view is that working holiday makers are foreign residents, and the ATO warns directly that lodging or amending a return describing yourself as a resident does not mean it will accept you are one. The residency tests are set out in the non-resident tax guide. If you decide an amendment is warranted, the time limit is two years from your notice of assessment where there is no foreign-sourced income to add, and four years where there is.
What working holiday makers cannot claim
Four things are off the table during the year: the tax-free threshold, tax offsets used to reduce withholding, Medicare levy adjustments, and study or training loans. Schedule 15 states that a working holiday maker cannot have a HELP, VET Student Loan, Financial Supplement, Student Start-up Loan or Australian Apprenticeship Support Loan debt, so no loan repayment should ever appear in a working holiday maker's withholding.
Deductions are a different matter. Work-related expenses that relate to earning your working holiday maker income still reduce the amount assessed at label D of question A4, but only if you lodge a return. That is the trade: staying under $45,001 means no lodgement obligation, but it also means no deductions and no refund of anything over-withheld.
Your workplace rights and the minimum wage
Visa holders and migrant workers have the same workplace entitlements and protections as every other employee in Australia, regardless of migration status. The National Minimum Wage from 1 July 2026 is $26.44 an hour or $1,004.90 a week before tax, and it applies where no award or enterprise agreement covers the job. Award-covered work is paid at the award rate instead, which is usually higher.
Being paid in cash is legal so long as tax was withheld from it and sent to the ATO. Cash with no tax taken out is not, and it also means no income statement, no withheld tax to reconcile and no refund. Those figures come from the Fair Work Ombudsman, not the ATO.
Frequently asked questions
What is the tax on a working holiday visa in Australia?
How much tax do you pay on a 417 visa?
Why is my employer taxing me 30% on a working holiday visa?
Do I get taxed 45% if I have no TFN?
Do I need to lodge a tax return on a working holiday visa?
How do I get my tax back on a working holiday visa?
Can I claim my superannuation when I leave Australia?
Do working holiday makers pay the Medicare levy?
Is a 462 visa taxed the same as a 417 visa?
Do working holiday makers get the tax-free threshold?
Sources
The 2026-27 rates on this page come from Schedule 15 because the ATO's annual working holiday maker rates page has not been updated past 2025-26. Dates below are the publication or last-updated dates shown on each page when it was checked on 30 July 2026.
- ATO: Schedule 15, Tax table for working holiday makers (published 17 June 2026, applies to payments from 1 July 2026; Table A 2026-27, the 45% no-TFN rule, the bridging visa test and the offset and loan exclusions)
- ATO: Tax rates, working holiday maker (last updated 1 June 2026; its most recent table is 2025-26)
- ATO: Working holiday makers (3 June 2026; the Louie, Aleks and Marjorie examples and the $45,001 lodgement rule)
- ATO: Employers of working holiday makers (24 July 2025; the 30% unregistered rate, payment type H, penalties may apply)
- ATO: Employer registration for working holiday makers (1 October 2024; register before the first payment, PAYG withholding registration first)
- ATO: Weekly tax table (published 17 June 2026; the foreign resident withholding bands that confirm 30% for 2026-27)
- ATO: Paper TFN declaration form for payees (28 May 2026; question 8 working holiday maker box, question 9 answered No)
- ATO: Foreign residents exemption from the Medicare levy (1 May 2026; exemption category 2)
- ATO: A4 Working holiday maker net income (30 May 2026; labels D and E, current instruction covers the 2025-26 income year)
- ATO: Lodge your tax return before leaving Australia (15 June 2026; paper only, 50 business days)
- ATO: Departing Australia superannuation payment (DASP) (21 April 2026; the 65% working holiday maker rate and the claim conditions)
- ATO: Taxation of Australian resident WHMs from NDA countries (3 June 2026; the eight eligible countries, Addy, the Iceland exclusion and the amendment limits)
- ATO: Australian residency if you are on a working holiday or visit (3 June 2026; the Commissioner's longstanding view that working holiday makers are foreign residents)
- ATO: How much super to pay (25 February 2026; the 12% super guarantee rate from 1 July 2025. That page states it covers earnings paid up to 30 June 2026, so confirm the current rate with the ATO before relying on it for a later period)
- Fair Work Ombudsman: Visa holders and migrant workers, workplace rights and entitlements (1 July 2026; the National Minimum Wage from 1 July 2026)
Related resources
PAYG Calculator
Working holiday maker, resident and foreign resident on any income
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The resident, foreign resident and working holiday maker scales
Open →Tax Refund Calculator
Withheld against owed, to size the refund before you lodge
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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.