Another year, another budget! We didn’t see a lot exciting in the 2024 Federal Budget. Below we have unpacked those parts of the budget that we think might be of interest to you. Some items have been released ahead of the budget, some as part of the budget.
This blog covers:
- Personal tax rates (stage 3 tax changes previously announced)
- Income tax compliance program
- Medicare Levy
- HECS debt indexation
- Housing support
- Energy Bill Relief Fund
- Fighting online scams
Personal Tax Rates – Stage 3 tax changes
The Government has previously announced they are sticking with the Stage 3 Tax Changes. The changes are estimated to reduce tax receipts to the Government by $1.3b over 5 years from 2023-24, assisting Aussies with the cost-of-living increases.
Below are the new personal tax rates and thresholds which will apply for 2024-25 onwards:
| 2023-24 | 2024-25 onwards | ||
| Table Income ($) | Tax Payable ($) | Taxable Income ($) | Tax Payable ($) |
| 0 – 18,200 | Nil | 0 – 18,200 | Nil |
| 18,201 – 45,000 | Nil + 19% of excess over 18,200 | 18,201 – 45,000 | Nil + 16% of excess over 18,200 |
| 45,001 – 200,000 | 5,092 + 30% of excess over 45,000 | 45,001 – 135,000 | 4,288 + 30% of excess over 45,000 |
| 200,001+ | 51,592 + 45% of excess over 200,000 | 135,001 – 190,000 | 31,288 + 37% of excess over 135,000 |
| 190,001+ | 51,638 + 45% of excess over 190,000 | ||
Extending the personal income-tax compliance program
The ATO wants Aussies to be accurate in lodging their tax returns. They will be targeting;
- Fixed rate working from home
- Rental Properties
- Missing income – don’t forget that bank interest or centrelink payments
The Personal Income Tax Compliance Program was previously extended by the ATO for two years from 1 July 2025 in the previous Budget. It will now also be extended for one year from 1 July 2027. The ATO have advise that they will use the extension to continue delivering a combination of proactive, preventative and corrective activities in key areas of non-compliance.
Medicare Levy
Changes to the Medicare Levy consisted of increases to thresholds for both singles and families. Changes to the Medicare Levy thresholds are set out below. The Medicare Levy remains at 2% of all your income once you cross the threshold.
- The threshold for singles has been increased from $24,276 to $26,000.
- The family threshold has been increased from $40,939 to $43,846. The family income thresholds will now increase by $4,027 for each dependent child, up from $3,760.
- For single seniors and pensioners, the threshold has been increased from $38,365 to $41,089.
- The family threshold for seniors and pensioners has been increased from $53,406 to $57,198.
HECS debt and student loans
The 2024 Federal Budget has provided some small benefit to students, but we see it more as righting a historic wrong! The indexing of HECs loans and student loans will change on the back of this budget.
The new indexation rules will use the lower of either the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or the Wage Price Index. This will be backdated to July 2023 which is good news for those with a HECS debt or other student loan debt.
For the last indexation period this means that HECS loans and other student loans will grow at the lower wage index rate of 3.2% rather than a 7.1% inflation rate.
This will ease the pressure on young people who may aspire to save for a first home, but will have little immediate impact.
If you’re a student, the future you is getting a benefit here!
Housing crisis and Cost of living measures
Housing Support
Coming out of the 2024 federal budget, the Government will provide additional funding to build more homes for Australians sooner.
Funding includes:
- supporting more community housing providers to access finance through the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator by increasing the cap on the Government’s guarantee of Housing Australia’s liabilities by $2.5 billion to $10.0 billion, with an associated increase in the line of credit that supports the Affordable Housing Bond Aggregator of $3.0 billion to $4.0 billion
- $88.8 million over three years from 2024–25 to support 20,000 new fee-free training places, including increased access to pre-apprenticeship programs, in courses relevant to the construction sector and delivered through TAFEs and industry registered training organisations
- $19.7 million over six years from 2024–25 to support housing research, fast-track feasibility studies on the release of Commonwealth land to support social and affordable housing and maintain Treasury’s capability to develop, advise on and implement housing policy and programs
- $7.0 million over three years from 2023–24 to provide targeted assistance to residential builders seeking to obtain accreditation under the Work Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme
- $6.2 million over two years from 2024–25 to support building industry peak employer associations to assist residential builders in obtaining accreditation under the Work Health and Safety Accreditation Scheme
- $2.0 million over three years from 2024–25 to build the financial capability of community housing providers and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled housing organisations
- $1.8 million over two years from 2024–25 for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations to deliver streamlined skills assessments for migrants from comparable countries who wish to work in Australia’s housing construction industry
- support to increase available rental housing by allowing foreign investors to purchase established Build to Rent properties with a lower foreign investment fee, conditional on the property continuing to be operated as a build to rent development.
In addition, the Government will:
- target the $1.0 billion for social housing under the National Housing Infrastructure Facility in the 2023–24 Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook towards crisis and transitional accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic violence, and youth, including redistributing the mix of concessional loans and grants to increase the proportion of grants to $700.0 million
- provide $1.9 billion in concessional finance to support community housing providers to deliver social and affordable.
- The Government will provide $1.9 billion over five years from 2023–24 (and $0.5 billion per year ongoing from 2028–29) to increase all Commonwealth Rent Assistance maximum rates by 10 per cent from 20 September 2024 to help address rental affordability challenges for recipients.
Energy Bill Relief Fund – extension and expansion
There is relief in sight for energy, but it’s only temporary.
The Government will provide $3.5 billion over three years from 2023–24 to extend and expand the Energy Bill Relief Fund to provide a $300 rebate to all Australian households and a $325 rebate to eligible small businesses on 2024–25 bills to provide cost of living relief.
We want to see the fine print on this to assess how easy or hard it will be to access this. Let’s hope it’s easy and takes a bit of pressure off the current cost of living.
Fighting scams
The Government will provide $67.5 million over four years from 2024–25 (and $8.6 million per year ongoing) to continue to combat online scams and fraud. They are looking to introduce a mandatory industry code under a Scams Code Framework. Funding will support:
- Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to administer and enforce mandatory industry codes for regulated businesses to address scams on their platforms and services, initially targeting telecommunications, banks and digital platforms services relating to social media, paid search engine advertising and direct messaging.
- ATO to continue to oversee and operate the secure eInvoicing network.
- ACCC to improve public awareness of scams and help the public to identify, avoid and report scams.
- Treasury to develop and legislate the overarching Scams Code Framework.
Partial funding for this measure will be held in the Contingency Reserve pending development of the preferred legislative approach for the Scams Code Framework.
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