Set your contribution
All amounts in $. Change any figure and the page recalculates. Yellow boxes are waiting for an entry.
Where each dollar goes
From the contribution, through the tax in your fund, to what reaches your bank account for the deposit.
Contribution to deposit ($)
What changes for you
Year by year, with and without the scheme
The released amount is taxable income, with a 30% tax offset, so the Medicare levy applies. It is left out when working out your HELP repayment and the Medicare levy surcharge.
Pay what you owe the ATO before you ask for the release
When the ATO releases your money, it first uses it to pay anything you owe it, including a HELP repayment on a tax assessment. Only the rest is paid to you.
The steps, in order
Check you are eligible
You are 18 or over when you apply, have never owned property in Australia, have never had an FHSS release, and plan to live in the home for at least 6 of the first 12 months.
Make voluntary contributions
Salary sacrifice, or personal contributions to your fund. Contributions your employer must pay you never count.
Claim a deduction properly
For a personal contribution you want to claim, give your fund a notice of intent and get its acknowledgment before you lodge your return and before you ask for an FHSS determination.
Clear what you owe the ATO
Pay any tax assessment or BAS balance before you ask for the release, so the full amount comes to you.
Ask for a determination, then the release
Both through ATO online services in myGov, ideally before you sign a contract. The money usually arrives within 15 to 20 business days.
Buy within 12 months and tell the ATO
Sign a contract within 12 months of asking for the release and tell the ATO within 90 days of the contract date. If you do not buy, you recontribute the amount to super or pay FHSS tax of 20%.
About this calculator
Purpose. To estimate how much the First Home Super Saver scheme could add to a home deposit for an Australian resident, the tax effect going in and coming out, and how that compares with saving the same money in a bank account.
Assumptions and why we chose them. You can change every assumption above.
- 2026-27 resident tax rates, the 2% Medicare levy and HELP repayment rates, as published by the ATO. Rates as at , for the 2026-27 financial year. Your income is assumed to be the same in each contribution year and in the release year.
- Deemed earnings use the ATO shortfall interest charge rate for , which is the rate the ATO uses for the scheme. They are estimated on the releasable amount, compounding daily.
- The savings comparison uses 4.50% a year, a typical online savings rate, with interest taxed at your marginal rate including Medicare levy and HELP.
- Today's dollars use 2.5% inflation, the middle of the Reserve Bank's target band.
- The release is assumed to fall in an income year after your last contribution.
Limitations and their effect.
- The ATO's determination sets the actual release and deemed earnings, so your real figures will differ.
- It does not check your concessional contributions cap, which includes your employer's super. Going over the cap means extra tax that would reduce the benefit.
- It does not model the Medicare levy surcharge in the contribution year, family Medicare thresholds, Division 293 tax or government benefit income tests.
- It does not consider fund fees, insurance in super or how your super is invested. Those affect your super balance, not the amount released.