Medicare Levy & Medicare Levy Surcharge Explained

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Medicare Levy & Medicare Levy Surcharge Explained

To have access to a great public healthcare system, most Australian residents pay the Medicare Levy, which is 2% of taxable income.

Foreign residents and some low wage earners are exempt from the Medicare Levy.

For example, a person with two young children earning less than $30,000 will not pay the Medicare Levy.

The Medicare Levy Is DIFFERENT To The Medicare Levy SURCHARGE

Singles who have a total income of more than $90,000 and families or couples earning more than $180,000 will pay an additional tax known as The Medicare Levy Surcharge unless they hold adequate private health insurance.

The income thresholds for the surcharge include Super contributions, fringe benefits and net investment losses.

For example, Greg and Sheila have combined total income of $200,000 but no private health insurance. They will pay the Medicare Levy Surcharge in addition to the Medicare Levy.

By having private health insurance cover for the entire tax year, Greg and Sheila may not be liable for the extra surcharge.

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Owen Raszkiewicz

Owen Raszkiewicz

Owen is the Chief Investment Officer of Rask Invest and Founder of Rask. Since founding The Rask Group in 2017 in the hillside suburb of Upwey, Victoria, Owen has overseen the growth of the Rask platform to over 200,000 investor followers. Today, Owen oversees the Rask Analyst team, which helps more than 4,000 Aussies build core portfolios from ETFs and shares, he hosts Australia's biggest investing podcast, The Australian Investors Podcast, appears on Rask's other channels, covering Property, Business and Finance; and leads Rask Education - our education platform which has enrolled over 25,000 Australians into free finance courses. Prior to founding Rask, Owen was an investment analyst at the highly regarded managed funds research business and a writer/analyst for one of the most well-known share market publications. Owen’s formal qualifications include a Master of Applied Finance and Master of Financial Planning from Kaplan Professional, Bachelor of Technology (Information Systems) from Swinburne University of Technology, Advanced Diploma of Financial Services (Financial Planning) and Diploma of Mortgage Broking Management. He's also completed level 1 of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) program.

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