Persona 01 — Mark, chef on $75,000

Profile

• Age: 32
• Occupation: Chef in a hospitality group, employee
• Annual taxable income: $75,000 (close to the $74,100 median income)
• Work-related expenses: chef's whites, knife sharpening, occasional taxi home — historically <$500/yr, never bothered itemising
• Investments: none. Some super at the SG rate.
• Housing: rents a 1-bedroom apartment in inner Brisbane.

Their universe of policies

• Theme 04 §4.1.1 — Bracket cuts
• Theme 04 §4.1.2 — WATO
• Theme 04 §4.1.3 — $1,000 instant deduction
• Theme 02 §2.2 — Fuel excise relief
• Theme 02 §2.3 — Rent assistance & housing supply (indirect — Mark is above CRA threshold but benefits from supply)

Scenarios

Scenario A — The first three rounds of tax cuts plus WATO

• Policy: Three sequential cuts to the second-lowest marginal rate (19% → 16% → 15% → 14%) plus the $250 WATO.
• Source: tax-explainers-new-tax-cuts-workers.docx — explicit cameo for "Mark, chef earning $75,000".
• Mechanic: First-round tax cut: $1,554 saved in 2024-25 vs 2023-24. Adding WATO + the new bracket cut + the instant deduction: $2,142 saved in 2026-27 and $2,660 from 2027-28 assuming no work-related expenses. The new decisions in this Budget alone add $570/yr from 2027-28 for Mark.
• Numbers (Treasury, with no WRE claimed):

Scenario B — Mark uses the new $1,000 instant deduction

• Policy: §4.1.3 — claim up to $1,000 of work-related expenses without receipts.
• Source: tax-explainers-new-tax-cuts-workers.docx
• Mechanic: Even though Mark spends only $300/yr on knife sharpening and uniforms, he can claim the full $1,000 with no substantiation. At his marginal rate (30%), that's an extra $300/yr in his pocket — automatically grossed into the column "up to" in the Treasury table. Treasury's average-saving for instant-deduction claimants is $205.
• Net outcome: the "up to" column applies — $2,660 + $300 ≈ $2,960 if he claims the full $1,000 from 2027-28.

Scenario C — Mark fills up his car

• Policy: Theme 02 §2.2 — fuel excise cut from 52.6c/L to 20.6c/L from 1 April 2026 for 3 months.
• Source: BP1 §1 (overview), budget-overview-2026-27.docx
• Mechanic: Mark drives a 1.5L hatchback ~12,000 km/yr → ~960 L/yr → ~80 L over the 3-month relief window. Excise cut of 32c/L → ~$25 of direct benefit assuming full pass-through.

Scenario D — Mark's rent doesn't move much

• Policy: §4.2.3 Negative gearing limited to new builds — Treasury models rent impact at <$2/week on the median rent.
• Source: tax-explainers-negative-gearing-capital-gains-tax.docx
• Mechanic: Mark rents a 1-bedroom apartment from a private landlord. Treasury expects rents to rise by less than $2/week as a result of the policy, more than offset over time by the 65,000 additional homes unlocked by the Local Infrastructure Fund and the Government's larger housing-supply package.

Bottom-line annual impact (vs 2023-24 settings)

Calculator settings

Open calculator/index.html and enter:

• Income: $75,000 (work)
• Other income: $0
• WRE claimed: $1,000 (use instant deduction)
• Tax year: flip between 2023-24, 2024-25, 2025-26, 2026-27, 2027-28+
• Investments: none