Tax and PPL

[lolz83]

Tried to call centerlink for advice but hung up after being on hold for do bloody long!!!

If I take my workplace paid maternity leave and the government PPL concurrently will I have to pay more tax? Just say for example I earn $1000 per week before tax, PPL is $580, does that mean I get taxed on $1580? I guess it depends on whether my pay + ppl moves me into the next tax bracket.

I also own a rental property, so I think I need to take that into account too.

[Skullduggery]

I didn't think you could take workplace ppl and government ppl at the same time?

[Cue]

PPL gets taxed at your "usual" tax rate. My understanding is that it'll get taxed at the same rate as you'd be taxed if you were earning your usual salary. It all gets balanced out at tax time.

You can start the gov PPL at any time in the year after birth, so if you have 3 months paid leave from work you can start gov PPL after that ends.

[missie_mack]

I didn't think you could take workplace ppl and government ppl at the same time?

You can indeed. OP you answered your own question. It depends on which tax bracket it puts you in.

[Bundleoflove]

Just have them paid at seperate times. Unless you're getting 12 months paid maternity leave through work you've got heaps of time to have the government one paid. It doesn't have to start when bubs is born, as long as it's within the 12 months after their birth it's all good.
But overall yes if you have them both paid at the same time you'll get taxed more, but if you're taking a bit of unpaid time off I'm guessing you'll probably get some back at tax time cos you may not earn as much as your normal yearly income.
Hope I didn't confuse you.

[missie_mack]

I think the OP is hoping to bring in her regular income. We cannot assume that the OP is taking 12 months leave. She may only be intending to take 18 weeks ...

[lolz83]

I am intending on taking 28 weeks. So my mat leave is 16 weeks paid at full rate, then ppl is 17 weeks at $580/week. Taking them after each other means 33 weeks off, I will therefore lose 5 weeks worth of ppl as when I return to work this stops. Maybe I'll start ppl at 10 wks after the birth, have 6 weeks where I am paid both, then the last 11 weeks where I am just receiving ppl.

Argh, I just want to be slogged lots of tax!

[mim1]

I think your idea of starting PPL a few weeks into your work paid leave is a good idea. Remember the advantage of your work leave is that it probably starts BEFORE you have your bub (eg. at 34 weeks when you finish work), so perhaps they might not overlap as much as you think (if you're taking 28 weeks off after your bub is born).

Remember that the $580 will be taxed too, it's not $580 tax free. But the good news is that your first $20,000 in the 12/13 financial year will be tax free, so you'll end up not paying that much tax.

And yes, waiting for the tax return time to get tax back is annoying. I'm running my own business this financial year, doing a bit of employed work (a few hours here & there on a casual basis) and I got 18 weeks of PPL (via Centrelink). This year's tax/income is SO messy for me. I probably qualify for all sorts of allowances/etc, but it's so hard to estimate what my financial year income is that I just have to plod on and wait til I put my tax in.