What is the difference between ATI and taxable income?

Taxable income is what the ATO uses to calculate your tax. ATI is what Centrelink uses to means-test family payments. ATI = taxable income PLUS reportable fringe benefits + reportable super contributions + tax-free pensions + foreign income + net investment losses, MINUS child support you paid. For most salary-only families they're identical; for anyone salary-sacrificing or with an investment property, ATI is higher.

Does my superannuation count in ATI?

Only reportable super contributions — the salary sacrifice into super you arranged voluntarily, plus any personal contributions you claimed as a tax deduction. Your employer's compulsory Super Guarantee (11.5% in 2025-26) does NOT count. So a typical salaried employee with no salary sacrifice has zero reportable super and ATI = taxable income for the super line.

Do fringe benefits count at full value in ATI?

No — Centrelink uses the grossed-up reportable fringe benefits amount (RFBA) from your payment summary, but applies a 0.53 factor for PBI employees (public benevolent institutions, public hospitals, charities, ambulance services). So a charity worker with $30,000 RFBA only adds $15,900 to ATI; a corporate worker with the same RFBA adds the full $30,000. The factor is 0.53 (the inverse of the FBT rate adjustment, recalibrated annually).

Why does ATI matter for family payments?

Every income test on every family payment uses ATI, not taxable income. CCS rate is set by combined family ATI. FTB-A and FTB-B income tests use ATI. PPL eligibility uses individual ATI. Rent Assistance uses combined family ATI. Even Health Care Card eligibility uses ATI. Get the ATI wrong and every downstream calculation is wrong — which is how families end up with surprise debt letters.

How do I find my ATI for last year?

It's not a single line on your ATO Notice of Assessment. Take your taxable income (the bottom-line figure), then add the six things — reportable fringe benefits (from payment summary), reportable super contributions, tax-free pensions (DSP/Carer Payment etc.), foreign income, and any net investment losses. Then subtract any child support you paid. Our ATI calculator walks through all 7 components and gives you the exact figure to enter into Centrelink.

Does ATI include my partner's income?

No — each person has their own ATI. But many family payments (CCS rate, FTB-A income test, Rent Assistance) are tested against COMBINED family ATI, which is just your ATI + your partner's ATI added together. FTB-B and PPL are tested against individual ATIs (primary vs secondary earner).

What is Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI), and what counts towards it?

ATI is the income figure Centrelink uses to test eligibility for CCS, FTB, Rent Assistance, PPL and more. It starts with your taxable income but adds back fringe benefits, salary-sacrificed super, foreign income, investment losses, and tax-free pensions — and subtracts child support paid. Here's the full picture.

Adjusted Taxable Income (ATI) is the figure Centrelink uses to income-test most family payments — CCS, FTB Part A, FTB Part B, Rent Assistance, Parental Leave Pay, and the Health Care Card. It starts with the taxable income on your tax return and then adds six categories (fringe benefits, salary-sacrificed super, tax-free pensions, foreign income, net investment losses) and subtracts one (child support paid). For most families with salary income only, ATI = taxable income. For anyone with salary packaging, an investment property, or a sacrificed super arrangement, ATI is meaningfully higher than taxable income — and getting it wrong is the single most common cause of a Centrelink debt at tax time.

This guide walks through every component, with the formula NestWise's ATI Calculator uses end-to-end.

The ATI formula

ATI is just taxable income with six add-ons and one deduction:

   Taxable income (from your ATO Notice of Assessment)
 + Reportable fringe benefits (RFB) — grossed-up amount
 + Reportable employer super contributions (salary sacrifice + personal deductible)
 + Tax-free pensions and benefits (DSP, Carer Payment under Age Pension age, DVA invalidity, etc.)
 + Net investment loss (rental + financial investments — added back as positive)
 + Foreign income (tax-exempt + non-taxable)
 − Child support paid (100% deducted)
 = Adjusted Taxable Income

If you only earn salary or wages and have no fringe benefits / super sacrificed / investment losses / child support obligations / foreign income, your ATI equals your taxable income. That's most families.

Use the NestWise ATI Calculator → Plug in your taxable income and any of the seven components — it gives you the exact figure to put into Centrelink's income estimate. Free.

Why ATI matters

Centrelink can't use taxable income alone because it can be manipulated — a high-income family that salary-packages aggressively could legitimately show "$60,000 taxable income" while actually having $130,000 of economic resources available. ATI brings those benefits back into the picture, levelling the playing field across families.

For NestWise users, the impact is concrete:

CCS uses ATI for the income test — get your ATI wrong by $20,000 and your applicable percentage shifts by 4% (1% per $5,000), which can be a $1,000+ reconciliation debt for a family with two kids in care.
FTB Part A uses ATI for both income tests AND the $80,000 supplement cliff. One dollar over $80,000 and you lose $938/child in supplement.
PPL uses ATI for the $180,007 individual / $373,094 family income test (FY2025-26 figures).
Rent Assistance, the Health Care Card and several state programs also use ATI for their means tests.

The seven components in detail

1. Taxable income (the base)

The figure at the bottom of your tax return — assessable income (salary, business profit, capital gains, investment income, etc.) minus deductions (work-related expenses, donations, etc.). For ATI purposes, a negative taxable income is treated as $0; you can't get a "negative ATI."

2. Reportable fringe benefits (RFB) — grossed-up

If your employer provides fringe benefits (a novated car lease, salary-packaged meals/entertainment, FBT-exempt items at a hospital), those benefits appear on your payment summary as the grossed-up reportable amount. The full grossed-up amount is added to ATI — except if you work for a Public Benevolent Institution (PBI), public/non-profit hospital, public ambulance service, or health-promotion charity: in those cases, the RFB is multiplied by (1 − FBT rate) first (≈ 53% counted at the current 47% FBT rate).

3. Reportable employer super contributions

This is salary-sacrificed super + personal deductible super contributions only — it does NOT include compulsory employer SG (the 12% your employer must pay anyway). If you sacrifice $10,000 of pre-tax salary into super, all $10,000 is added back to ATI. If your only super contribution is the compulsory SG, this component is $0.

4. Tax-free pensions and benefits

Certain government payments aren't taxable but DO count for ATI:

Disability Support Pension (under Age Pension age)
Carer Payment (under Age Pension age)
DVA invalidity service pension
DVA partner service pension (some cases)
Defence Force Income Support Allowance

This list is fairly narrow; most parents don't have anything here.

5. Foreign income (tax-exempt + non-taxable)

If you have foreign-source income that's exempt from Australian tax (e.g., some foreign pensions, certain employment income earned overseas), it still counts for ATI. Salary you've paid Australian tax on already is in your taxable income (#1) so doesn't double-count here.

6. Net investment loss

This catches negative gearing and similar arrangements. If your investment property runs at a $15,000 net loss (interest + maintenance > rent) and your share-portfolio runs at a $3,000 net financial investment loss, you have $18,000 of net investment loss. That figure is added back to ATI as a positive number. The logic: you reduced your taxable income by claiming the loss; Centrelink adds it back to see your real economic position.

7. Child support paid (subtracted — the only minus)

If you pay child support to a former partner, the full amount paid this financial year is deducted from ATI — recognising that money's no longer available to support your current household. Receiving child support doesn't change your ATI (child support received counts in a separate Maintenance Income Test under FTB Part A — see the Maintenance Action Test for that).

A worked example

A couple's combined picture for FY2025-26:

Component	Amount
Combined taxable income	$120,000
Reportable fringe benefits (novated lease)	+ $8,500
Salary-sacrificed super (one partner, $200/wk)	+ $10,400
Tax-free pensions	+ $0
Foreign income	+ $0
Net investment loss (rental property)	+ $7,000
Child support paid	− $4,800
Adjusted Taxable Income	$141,100

For CCS, FTB, RA — this couple's income test uses $141,100, not $120,000. The $21,100 gap is real and bites in three places: their CCS percentage drops by roughly 4% (1% per $5,000), they're deeper into the FTB-A upper-taper zone (the 30¢ band above $118,771), and they're well past the $80,000 FTB-A supplement cliff (which they would also fail on taxable income alone in this example, but the gap is what catches families hovering near the cliff).

The four gotchas that catch families out

1. Salary sacrifice to super COUNTS, not just RFB. Many parents assume only fringe benefits add back; the salary-sacrificed super line is the bigger one for most households. $10k/year of sacrifice is $10k of ATI you didn't see coming.

2. Negative gearing ADDS BACK. "But I'm losing money on the investment!" — Centrelink doesn't care for ATI purposes. The loss reduced your tax, so they add it back to see the real picture. This is the biggest surprise for property investors who don't realise.

3. Capital gains COUNT (as part of taxable income). A one-off house sale, share sale, or crypto realisation in a year can push your ATI up by hundreds of thousands — and Centrelink will reconcile against that figure, potentially clawing back significant CCS/FTB. NestWise's Rate Checker can catch this drift mid-year.

4. PBI/charity employees still add SOME of their RFB. The 53% factor (currently) for FBT-exempt employers means a $30,000 grossed-up RFB still adds ~$15,900 to ATI. Hospital and charity workers often underestimate this.

How NestWise calculates your ATI

NestWise's ATI Calculator implements the formula step by step using ATO + DSS rules:

Taxable income — clamped to ≥ $0.
RFB — full grossed-up amount, or × (1 − FBT rate) if PBI/charity employer.
Reportable super — added in full.
Tax-free pensions — added per the inclusion list.
Foreign income — added.
Net investment loss — added back as positive.
Child support paid — subtracted.
Final ATI = max(0, sum).

The calculator also shows the gap between your ATI and taxable income — usually the most useful number for spotting whether you'd hit the $80k FTB supplement cliff or the CCS taper.

The full source list is on the sources page.