The Student Financial Supplement Scheme (SFSS) was a voluntary loan scheme to help tertiary students cover their expenses while studying. The scheme ceased in December 2003. In the fifth year of the loan being taken out, the Tax Office takes responsibility for collecting the balance of the outstanding loan, which becomes an accumulated Financial Supplement debt.
You will be required to start repaying your SFSS debt when your repayment income is above the minimum threshold for compulsory repayment.
The following rates apply for the 2008-09 financial year.
|
Rate %
|
Repayment Income *
Thresholds
|
| Nil | 0 – 41,595 |
| 2 | 41,595 – 51,070 |
| 3 | 51,071 – 72,492 |
| 4 | 72,493+ |
* ‘Repayment income’ is the sum of the taxpayer’s taxable income plus any net
rental losses, total reportable fringe benefits amounts and any exempt foreign employment income.
Online Calculator
The Australian Taxation Office have an online Student Financial Supplement Scheme repayment calculator available from the ATO website. The SFSS repayment calculator provides you with an estimate of your compulsory SFSS repayment.
Your compulsory SFSS repayment amount is automatically calculated when your tax return is processed and is based on your repayment income.
More Information
The Tax Office have put together a publication titled Repaying your Financial Supplement loan 2008-09.
This guide includes information on:
-
Your financial supplement account
Indexation
Compulsory repayments
SFSS debts and PAYG
Voluntary repayments
plus more
The Repaying your Financial Supplement loan 2008-09 publication can be viewed and downloaded in Portable Document Format (PDF) from the ATO website. to your own computer.
Article by Christie Lewis
Christie is Practice Manager at Alan Lewis Accountants . Besides accounting, her passion is for all things small business (and blogging, of course). You can contact Christie directly at christie@lewistaxation.com.au.
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