Your first job in Australia: tax, super and payslips explained

First job paperwork arrives all at once — TFN declaration, super choice form, awkward questions about thresholds — and the choices you make in week one follow you for years. Here's the whole picture in five minutes.

Before you start: your TFN

Apply for a tax file number free through the ATO (it takes minutes online). You can start work without one, but after 28 days without a TFN your employer must withhold at the top rate — most of your pay, gone until tax time. Never pay anyone to "get you a TFN", and never put it in a job application; it belongs only on official forms after you're hired.

The tax-free threshold checkbox

The TFN declaration asks whether you claim the tax-free threshold — the first $18,200 a year tax-free. One job: tick yes. More than one: claim it only from the employer who pays you most, or the double-claimed shortfall becomes a tax-time bill. If you'll earn under $18,200 for the whole year, tax withheld from casual shifts comes back as a refund — but only if you lodge a return.

Super: you probably already have a fund

Employers must pay 12% on top of your wages into super — and since the stapling rules, your first-ever fund follows you from job to job unless you actively choose. That first default fund is now a decision with decades of consequences: before signing the super form, spend ten minutes comparing your stapled fund's fees and performance against a low-fee alternative. And since payday super began in July 2026, contributions must reach your fund within days of each payday — check your fund's app a few weeks in and make sure money is actually landing.

Reading your first payslip

Gross (what you earned) → tax withheld → net (what lands in your account), plus super accrued and leave balances. Two checks worth doing once: that your hourly rate matches your award or contract — young and casual workers are the most underpaid groups in the country, usually by error — and that casual loading (typically 25%) is included if you're casual. Our hourly ↔ salary calculator converts your rate to annual figures and shows the tax you should expect.

Your first tax return

After 30 June, your income statement appears in myGov marked "tax ready" (by late July). If you earned under $18,200: lodge anyway, the withheld tax comes back. Above it: the low income tax offset (up to $700) does a lot of the work at starter salaries. Lodging through myTax is free and, at one job with simple affairs, genuinely a fifteen-minute job. General information only.