Tax! Not the most exciting subject to write about but something you will need to know if you're considering earning a crust in Australia as a senior medical practitioner for a public health service.
If you are a consultant/specialist your income tax works out to be just under 40% of your taxable income once the bands below are evened out.
You won't get taxed on the superannuation (pension) contributions your employer makes. This is a minimum of of 9.5% of your base salary and qualifying allowances. This is tax free going in and tax free when you take it out but you need to be at least 60 years old to withdraw it. You can also top up this payments with untaxed salary as well.
Salary packaging benefits are accessible and can help to minimise your obligations. Most health services use a salary packaging provider to help you - you can use your allocation to pay for rent/mortgage, food, meals out etc.
Have you heard of the Medicare levy? Medicare is the system which pays for the universal health care system in Australia. Each payslip you receive will detail the medicare levy - 2% of your taxable income - which you pay.
The table below details the tax bands and does not include the Medicare levy.
*Table from Australian Taxation Office.
All in all, it's fairly straightforward . Mainly because it's very likely you will engage a tax accountant - like I did - who will do your tax return and will do their utmost to ensure your tax obligations are kept to the absolute minimum.
I'm not an accountant, I'm a medical recruiter. So make sure you get professional advice relating to tax, superannuation, salary packaging etc.
Want to find out more about your potential renumeration and jobs in Australia? Contact me on alasdair@spinnermedical.com or call/message on +44 7414 531 583. Please review the jobs on this website.