Family Tax Benefit Supplements 2026: The $80,000 Threshold & End-of-Year Top-Up

General information only. This is not tax or financial advice, nor financial-counselling advice. FTB supplement amounts and thresholds are indexed and change periodically — confirm current figures with Services Australia before relying on them.

Family Tax Benefit is paid fortnightly throughout the year, but a second layer of payment arrives only once — after the financial year ends and your income is finalised. These are the FTB Part A and Part B supplements, and they work nothing like the fortnightly rate. They’re paid in a lump sum at balancing, they have their own income test with a hard cut-off, and they depend on something fortnightly FTB doesn’t: your child’s immunisation status. Here’s how the 2026 supplements work.

The two supplements

If you receive Family Tax Benefit during the year, you may be entitled to two extra amounts once Services Australia balances your family’s payments against your actual income:

• FTB Part A supplement: up to $970.90 per eligible child
• FTB Part B supplement: up to $478.15 per family

Both are calculated automatically — you don’t apply for them separately — but both are conditional, and the conditions are stricter than the ones that govern your ordinary fortnightly rate.

The $80,000 cliff: all-or-nothing, not a taper

This is the detail that catches families out. Your ordinary FTB Part A rate tapers gradually — it reduces by 20 cents, then 30 cents, for every dollar your income sits above the free area (see FTB Part A and Part B rates for 2026-27 for the current taper mechanics). The supplements don’t taper at all.

To be eligible for either supplement, your family’s adjusted taxable income must be $80,000 or less for the whole financial year. Go a single dollar over $80,000 and both supplements disappear entirely — not reduced, not part-paid, gone. There is no taper zone above the limit the way there is for the base FTB rate.

This makes the $80,000 figure a genuine cliff, not a threshold in the usual gradual sense. A bonus, an investment gain, or extra overtime that tips combined family income from $79,900 to $80,100 can cost a two-child family the better part of $2,000 in supplements at balancing time, with no partial payment to soften the drop.

“Family income” for this test uses the same adjusted taxable income definition applied elsewhere in FTB — it adds back reportable fringe benefits, reportable super contributions, and net investment losses (including negatively geared property) to taxable income. A family with $75,000 in salary but a $10,000 reportable fringe benefit is assessed at $85,000, not $75,000 — and loses the supplements even though take-home pay looks well under the limit.

Because the $80,000 limit has been frozen rather than indexed for a number of years, it captures a growing share of middle-income families as wages rise — a family that comfortably cleared the supplement test a few years ago may now be sitting right on the cliff edge without having changed its financial position much at all.

Why supplements are paid at balancing, not fortnightly

Services Australia can’t know your final adjusted taxable income until the financial year is over and you’ve lodged (or confirmed you don’t need to lodge) a tax return. Your fortnightly FTB payments during the year are based on an estimate you provide. The supplements can only be assessed against actual, confirmed income — so they’re held back and paid as a lump sum during the balancing process that follows the end of the financial year.

In practice:

1. You receive fortnightly FTB during the year based on your income estimate.
2. After 30 June, you and your partner lodge tax returns (or notify Centrelink you don’t need to).
3. Services Australia compares your actual adjusted taxable income against your estimate and balances your FTB for the year.
4. If final income is $80,000 or less and other conditions are met, the Part A and/or Part B supplement is added to your balancing outcome — increasing a top-up or reducing an amount owed.
5. If you don’t lodge (or confirm a non-lodgement) within the required timeframe, the supplements are not paid at all, regardless of income.

This is why the supplements feel disconnected from your regular payments — they land months after the year they relate to, in a single amount, only after everyone whose income counts toward the family assessment has squared away their tax obligations. Missing the lodgement deadline is one of the most common ways families lose supplements they were otherwise entitled to.

The immunisation gate

The Part A supplement carries a second, non-financial condition: your children must meet immunisation requirements (or hold a valid, recognised exemption) for the relevant period. This check is separate from and additional to the income test — a family can be well under the $80,000 limit and still have the Part A supplement withheld if a child’s vaccinations aren’t up to date according to the Australian Immunisation Register.

Health check requirements can also apply for children turning four. If Services Australia’s records show the immunisation (or health check) condition isn’t met, the supplement is held back until it’s satisfied and confirmed — it isn’t lost forever the way a missed income cut-off is, but it won’t be paid on the normal balancing timetable either.

Putting it together

Whether you’ll see either supplement at balancing time comes down to three independent gates, all of which must be satisfied:

• Income gate: family adjusted taxable income $80,000 or less for the year (all-or-nothing, not tapered).
• Lodgement gate: you and your partner have lodged tax returns, or told Centrelink you don’t need to, within the deadline.
• Immunisation gate (Part A only): your children meet immunisation and health-check requirements for the period.

Because the ordinary fortnightly rate and the supplements run on different rules, it’s worth checking both separately. Use the Family Tax Benefit calculator to estimate your fortnightly Part A and Part B entitlement, and see FTB Part A and Part B rates and income tests for 2025-26 for how the underlying free areas and tapers work if your income sits above the supplement cliff.