You Changed Jobs This Year. Here’s What It Means for Your Tax.
Changing jobs is framed as a career milestone with a new title, new salary and a new environment. Financially, it’s also one of the most underestimated tax transition points in a financial year.
Most people don’t realise that a job change can alter their tax position in several ways at once. You may have received multiple PAYG summaries, redundancy or unused leave payouts, sign-on bonuses, or shifts in salary packaging. Even small gaps in timing between employers can push your tax bill higher than you'd expect.
For example, someone moving from one employer in July to another in January may end up with two separate income streams that are taxed as if they are independent, even though they sit within the same financial year. This can lead to a higher-than-expected marginal tax outcome or a surprise tax bill at EOFY.
Where People Get Caught Out
There’s also superannuation to consider. Different employers use different default funds, contribution timing, and payroll systems. It’s not uncommon for super to be temporarily split across multiple accounts without people noticing and quietly eating into your long-term balance..
Multiple super accounts can also result in duplicated insurance premiums and higher overall fees, which may reduce net retirement savings over time without any obvious short-term visibility.
Key Opportunities
A higher salary can also push you into a different marginal tax bracket, change HELP/HECS repayment thresholds, or affect your eligibility for offsets and benefits. Conversely, gaps between roles may create planning opportunities around deductions or contributions that can be missed in real time.
For example, a temporary drop in taxable income between roles can create opportunities for additional super contributions or strategic capital gains timing that may not have been available in a higher-income year.
Someone who receives a sign-on bonus in a new role may find that it lifts their taxable income into a higher bracket temporarily, even if their “normal” salary would not have triggered that outcome.
EOFY is a useful checkpoint to step back and ask a simple question: Is my new income structure actually working in my favour, or just happening to me?
This is where people realise they’ve unintentionally drifted from their financial plan — not because of poor decisions, but because career changes weren’t paired with financial reset.
What To Do Before 30 June
If you changed jobs this year and you’re not completely sure how your income, super, bonuses, or tax position now fit together, this is the time to check before small issues become expensive ones later.
Book a call with our team, if you want to understand where you might be overpaying, under-contributing, or missing opportunities across roles.
This blog is part of our Wealth Hub series. Sign up to access the full Hub.
*This blog contains information that is general in nature. It does not take into account the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular person. You need to consider your financial situation and needs before making any decisions based on this information. Lanteri Partners Lanteri Partners ABN: 88 060 748 594 Financial Services Licensee No: 239127
Bobby Ho B.Com(Fin/Mkt), DFS(FP), GDipPA, CPA, SSA
Senior Financial Adviser
Ground Floor, 1 Collins Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia