New-grad nurse tax guide: your first tax return

Congratulations, you made it through the degree and onto the floor. Your first tax return as a nurse can feel like one more confusing form at the end of an already big year, but it is more straightforward than it looks, and getting it right from the start sets up every return after this one. Here is what a new grad actually needs to know: how the return works, the couple of things that trip first-timers up, and the deductions that are yours now that you are earning.

How your first return works

The basics first, because nobody really sits you down and explains them.

• Wait for your income statement. Your employer finalises it in myGov, usually by mid-July. Once it reads "Tax ready", your pay and the tax already withheld are there for you.
• Lodge by 31 October if you are doing it yourself through myGov. A registered tax agent generally buys you longer, but you need to be on their books before that date.
• You will most likely get some tax back. Employers tend to withhold a little more than needed across the year, and your deductions come off on top. A refund is the norm for a first-year nurse, not a windfall to feel odd about.

The thing that trips new grads up: two jobs

Plenty of new nurses keep a casual or second job while they find their feet. If that is you, this is the part to get right. You can only claim the tax-free threshold, the first $18,200 you earn each year tax-free, from one employer. Claim it from both and not enough tax is withheld across the year, and you can end up with a bill instead of a refund. The fix is simple: claim the threshold from your main, higher-paying job and not from the second. If you have already ticked it on both, you can change it with your employer at any time.

Your HELP debt

Most new grads finish the degree with a HECS-HELP debt, and it starts to matter the moment you are earning. Once your income passes the repayment threshold, a compulsory repayment is worked out at tax time, and your employer usually withholds a bit extra through the year to cover it. It is not a separate bill to save for, it comes out in the wash of your return. Our guide to how HECS-HELP repayments work walks through the thresholds and whether paying it down early is worth it.

The deductions you can claim now

Now that you are earning as a nurse, the work costs you pay for yourself are deductible, the same as for any nurse. The ones that matter most in a first year:

• Uniform and laundry. A compulsory or logo uniform, and the washing of it. Our shoes, laundry and uniforms guide covers the catches.
• Your AHPRA registration renewal, once you are registered and working.
• Equipment. A fob watch, bandage scissors or a stethoscope, claimed in full up to $300 each.
• Union or professional association fees.
• CPD relevant to your current role, and the work share of your phone.

The full list, with the records the ATO expects, is in our tax deductions for nurses guide, and there is a nurse tax return checklist you can run before you lodge.

What you can't claim as a new grad

A few first-year costs feel like they should count, and it stings a little that they don't, so it is worth knowing up front:

• Your nursing degree. Study to first qualify for the job is not deductible, even the final-year placements. It got you into nursing, rather than being a cost of doing it.
• Your first AHPRA registration. The initial registration to enter the profession is not claimable. Every renewal from here on is.
• Moving for your first job. Relocation costs to take up a graduate position are private.
• Everyday clothes and shoes, and the trip to and from work.

Start the habit now

The single best thing you can do in your first year is start keeping records from day one, because the nurse who saves each receipt as they go claims far more, with far less stress, than the one rebuilding the year the night before they lodge. The ATO's free myDeductions tool will get you going.

The bottom line

Your first nurse tax return comes down to a few things: wait for your income statement, claim the tax-free threshold from one job only, let your HELP debt sort itself out through the year, and claim the work costs that are genuinely yours while leaving off the study and first registration that got you here. Get into good record-keeping now and you have set up not just this return, but every one to come.

General information only, not tax advice. Check the ATO or a registered tax agent for your situation.