happy new year: these 7 things change from today

**Glen James** (0:06)
1st of July, 2026, it's the new financial year. Happy New Year. Thanks for joining me. Just jumping on, because I want to go through seven things plus a bonus eight that is happening on the 1st of July, this new financial year.
Okay, the first thing, there is a small income tax cut. So the 16% tax rate between $18,201 and $45,000 is dropping to 15%, so there's a 1% drop in that tax bracket. If you earn more than $45,000 a year, the most you'll save is $268 this financial year. Now at the time of recording on the 24th of June, there is also the $1,000 instant work-related deduction.
Right as at today, it is not legislated. I'd expect it's going to get legislated in the coming fortnight. Along with the budget changes, I think it's going to be part of that package in the Parliament. The second thing that's changing is the paid parental leave. Now it's going to be 130 days or 26 weeks. For couples, 20 days are reserved for the other parent on a use it or lose it basis.
It's basically going to be $26,127 before tax in total. The super on the government parental leave is also paid, but that started from children born on the 1st of July last year, so that's kind of already happening.
Before we get into it, this show is general advice only. I've got a licence to provide that advice. Full details can be found in the show description. My name is Glen James, former Financial Advisor. I hosted this show and a show called Retire Right. I've got some books, the award-winning Quick-Start Guide to Investing and the Quick-Start Guide to Your First Property, available where good books are sold or in the description. If you're new here, welcome. If you're in old hand, welcome to M3. Let's get into it right now.
Okay, the third thing, a little bit controversial but I think it's actually a good thing. I think the controversial part of this was from maybe businesses that weren't on top of their cash flow or systems, and that is payday super.
Employers must pay super the same time as they pay the wage, which basically means it needs to be in the employee's super account within seven days. A couple of things, the rate is still 12% and super is now calculated on qualifying earnings slightly broader than the traditional ordinary time earnings. An example of that is commission payments, for example. They're now going to get included in that 12%.
The fourth thing, the minimum and award wages rise. So the national minimum wage becomes $1,004.90 per week or $26.44 per hour, which is about a 6% increase. The minimum award wages rise by 4.75. Sometimes they're two different increase. So just check which applies to you.
It's important as well. Like a lot of our audience, just because of the nature of the listeners of this show, are nowhere near minimum wage territory. But if you're on the minimum wage, you will get a pay increase. All right, what do we got? One, two, three, four. The fifth one, if you have a help debt, the repayment threshold rises. And that is from $67,000 to $69,528.
So if you are earning $67,000 last year, you would have had money garnished from your salary. If you're earning $67,000 this year, you'll get an effective after-tax pay increase because you won't be paying your help repayment. Number six, the super contribution caps, they are going up. So the concessional before-tax contribution, which includes your 12% SG, is now $32,500. So if your employer put $12,500 a year in to your super this financial year, you've basically got a $20,000 usable cap that you can salary sacrifice, put personal deductible contributions in, so the cap is increasing. They generally increase every three years. The non-concessional after-tax cap is $130,000 of post-tax dollars, which brings the three-year bring forward amount to $390,000. If you're cashed up, you want to throw $390,000 into your super fund, you can do that. The balance transfer cap also increases to $2.1 million, which is effectively the amount that you can have in superannuation, in pension phase, and not paying any tax on the growth of earnings. Number seven, this is for the richies out there. If you've got over, well, there's a lot on the screen. You'll see the details. Basically, if you've got over $3 million in your superfund, you'll now pay 30% on earnings.
And if you've got over $10 million, you filthy capitalist pig, in your superfund, you're going to be basically paying 40% tax, which is still less than outside super, okay? Okay, the bonus eight, what is happening on the 1st of July, 2026? Well, it is official. The Quick-Start Guide to Your First Property Book is now officially released. It's been out there in the last week or so, because they just dropped them whenever the retails get the books. But the 1st of July is the official release date. So please, if you love what we do here, and you want to look at buying your first home to live in, or a first investment property, either if you've never owned a home before, or if you've got a house and you want to buy an investment property, The Quick-Start Guide to Your First Property will really help you. It will really help you as well if you're in that tension of, I'm saving for my first property, and I don't know if it's a property to live in or an investment property, and we're back and forward and we can't decide. The Quick-Start Guide to Your First Property, this book will absolutely help you get clarity out of murky thoughts and set you on a path to get to your first property. It's also a great gift for anyone in your life who could be looking to buy their first property. It's written by myself and Rach Crune. So thank you so much for your support. If you're going to buy one, buy two, one for yourself and one for a gift. And look, it's just, we just really can't do all this stuff without you. We write this stuff as tools and as resources for everyone in our community. So there'll be a link in the description of the show notes. And we really appreciate your support with The Quick-Start Guide to Your First Property. Okay, I'll recap right after this and we'll send it home.