How can the baby bonus be more than paid parental leave for me?

[*TripleJ*]

i dont know ur case personally but i do know its taxed so with PPL u get less or no Family tax benefit not sure about the technical part of it and when it comes to ur tax return it might push u into the higher tax bracket so it will cost u more tax so usually the baby bonus is better when it comes to lower income earners so u dont change tax brackets HTH

[briggsy's girl]

the calculator works out

ftb a
ftb b
paid parental leave
tax
baby bonus

if you qualify for ftbb (so if your partner has a low income), and you take paid parental leave, you don't actually GET that ftbb for the 18 weeks of PPL.
it takes into account a lot of different circumstances and the estimator gives you the option that will give you, over the course of a year, the most cash in hand

i have run the estimator for a lot of different scenarios for DH and I to see what works better. because i get paid mat leave from work, and he is a stay at home parent, there wasn't any circumstance (that was reasonably likely to happen for us) in which PPL works out better for us.

[Mildez]

Thank you all for your replies. I can see why now PPL may not be the best option. Unfortunately we get neither FTBA or FTBB as my eldest DD's father's 9yrs of maintanence debt was given was half paid to me in a lump sum which means this financial year I'm not entitled to any FTB and I expect the other half to be paid in the new financial year. Looks like we will be getting the baby bonus instead. Oh well atleast I don't have to add the almost $10000 to my taxable income. Thats a bonus I guess.

[mellybelly81]

Hi Mildez

As BG said, the estimator takes into account all those things and lets you know what will give you a better financial outcome. BUT you can still opt to take the PPL. It is not means tested and if you qualify (I think you have to have worked 10 months of the previous 12?) then you can take it. Its just like evryone else has said, the ftb payments will be different depending on your circumstances.

HTH

[misty]

yeah, I looked into it, and I'm best to take the baby bonus over the PPL too. Although I ran my own figures on it. The PPL is taxed, which means you are actually bringing home less in terms of real $$$$ then the grosss amount they tell you about. How much you are taxed depends on how much you earn.

In my case, taking the PPL - the payment itself would be more then the BB, but I would loose a huge chunk of my FTB A&B, so overall would get less money.