ATO Interpretative Decision
ATO ID 2005/364 (Withdrawn)
Income Tax
Medicare Levy Surcharge: family surcharge threshold - dependant for part of the year of incomeFOI status: may be released
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This ATO ID is withdrawn. Guidance relating to the issue addressed in this ATO ID can be found in Family and dependants for Medicare levy surcharge purposes (QC 27044).This document has changed over time. View its history.
This ATOID provides you with the following level of protection:
If you reasonably apply this decision in good faith to your own circumstances (which are not materially different from those described in the decision), and the decision is later found to be incorrect you will not be liable to pay any penalty or interest. However, you will be required to pay any underpaid tax (or repay any over-claimed credit, grant or benefit), provided the time limits under the law allow it. If you do intend to apply this decision to your own circumstances, you will need to ensure that the relevant provisions referred to in the decision have not been amended or repealed. You may wish to obtain further advice from the Tax Office or from a professional adviser.
Issue
Is a taxpayer's family surcharge threshold, as calculated under section 3A of the Medicare Levy Act 1986 (MLA), reduced if a dependant of the taxpayer is not a dependant for the whole of the year of income?
Decision
No. A taxpayer's family surcharge threshold, as calculated under section 3A of the MLA, is not reduced if a dependant of the taxpayer is not a dependant for the whole of the year of income.
Facts
The taxpayer and their spouse have three children who live at home.
Two of the children are under 16 years of age, or 21 years of age for the 2005-06 and later years of income, and the third is 18 years of age, or 22 years of age for the 2005-06 and later years of income, and received full time education at school for approximately half of the year of income.
The taxpayer does not have private patient hospital cover for any part of the year of income.
Reasons for Decision
Subsection 8D(1) of the MLA imposes an increase in the Medicare Levy (Medicare Levy Surcharge) for married taxpayers for the period they or any of their dependants, who are not prescribed persons, are not covered by an insurance policy which provides for private patient hospital cover.
Under subsection 8D(3) of the MLA the amount of the surcharge is 1% of the person's taxable income if, among other things, the sum of the taxpayer's and their spouse's taxable income and reportable fringe benefits exceeds the family surcharge threshold.
Family surcharge threshold is defined in section 3A of the MLA as:
- (a)
- $100,000 or
- (b)
- If a person has 2 or more dependants who are children - the amount worked out as follows:
$100,000 + ($1,500 x Number of dependants who are children - 1)
A dependant for the purposes of the MLA is determined by sections 251R and 251V of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936) (see Note 2 subsection 8D(1) of the MLA).
Through the interaction of sections 251R and 251V of the ITAA 1936
... a person shall be taken to have been a dependant of another person for the purposes of Part VIIB during any part of the year of income in which -
The taxpayer's three children were dependants for either the full year or, in the case of the student under 25, for part of the year of income.
As indicated above, under section 3A of the MLA the family surcharge threshold is increased by $1500 for the second and subsequent dependants who are children. It does not require a dependant to be a dependant for the full year of income.
As such, the taxpayer is entitled to increase their family surcharge threshold, as calculated under section 3A of the MLA, by $1500 for each of their second and third children. The taxpayer's family surcharge threshold is not reduced because one of the dependants of the taxpayer is not a dependant for the whole of the year of income.
Date of decision: 8 November 2005Year of income: 30 June 2005
Legislative References:
Medicare Levy Act 1986
section 3A
subsection 8D(1)
subsection 8D(3)
section 251R
section 251V
Keywords
Medicare levy
Medicare levy surcharge
ISSN: 1445-2782
Date: | Version: | |
8 November 2005 | Original statement | |
You are here | 7 September 2017 | Archived |
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