Salary Packaging for Healthcare Workers: How to Maximise Your Take-Home Pay in a Public Hospital Role

Minh Le
Oct 20
3 min read

If you’re a nurse, doctor, allied health professional, or non-clinical worker in a public hospital, there’s a good chance you’re missing out on thousands of dollars in potential take-home pay each year. That’s not a scare tactic; it’s a fact.

Many healthcare workers never receive personalised advice about salary packaging, leaving valuable tax-free income on the table. At Healthcare Accounting, we specialise in helping healthcare professionals make the most of their income, not just at tax time but throughout every pay cycle.

What Is Salary Packaging

Salary packaging (also called salary sacrifice) allows you to pay for certain expenses before income tax is applied. This effectively reduces your taxable income, which means you pay less tax and keep more money in your pocket.

As a public hospital employee, you’re part of a sector that enjoys some of the most generous packaging limits in Australia.

Example: A Nurse on $90,000

Scenario	Taxable Income	Tax + Medicare Levy	Take-Home Pay	Savings
Without Salary Packaging	$90,000	~$21,700	~$68,300	-
With Full Salary Packaging	~$75,000	~$16,000	~$74,000	+$5,700/year

Who Can Access Salary Packaging

If you're employed by a public or not-for-profit hospital, you're likely eligible to package up to:

$9,010 tax-free for general living expenses such as groceries, bills, rent, or mortgage
$2,650 for meals and entertainment, including dining out and venue hire
Additional options such as novated car leasing, laptop purchases, and more

This means you can potentially pay for over $11,660 in expenses tax-free every year.

What Can You Salary Package

Expense Type	Eligible for Packaging?
Rent or Mortgage repayments	Yes
Credit card payments	Yes
Utility bills & groceries	Yes
Meals & restaurant bills	Yes (under cap)
Car lease & running costs	Yes (via novated lease)
Laptop, phone, work tools	Yes
Childcare or school fees	No

Each employer has its own salary packaging provider (for example, Maxxia or SmartSalary), but many options are underutilised due to confusion or lack of personalised advice.

Why So Many Miss Out

We often see healthcare professionals such as nurses, registrars, and allied health workers:

Not packaging the full cap
Not understanding how it affects their tax return
Avoiding it because they think it’s too complicated
Accidentally triggering HECS/HELP repayment issues
Getting no proactive advice from their accountant or HR

Our Solution: Salary Packaging Advice That Works

At Healthcare Accounting, we help you take full advantage of your entitlements by providing:

Review of your current setup

We assess what you're using, what's available, and where you're leaving money on the table.

Personalised packaging and tax strategy

We calculate exactly how much you’ll save and how to structure your salary to maximise take-home pay.

Novated lease management

We review and model lease options to ensure you don’t overpay under the guise of tax savings.

Ongoing review

As your career evolves, whether you move to private practice or regional work, we adjust your strategy accordingly.

Real Client Example

Case: Allied Health Worker, $82,000 Salary

Before: No packaging, take-home pay ~$62,800

After: Full cap claimed, mortgage and bills includedNew take-home pay: ~$68,400

Annual savings: $5,600

We also adjusted her HECS repayments and helped avoid over-withholding by her employer.

Long-Term Benefits

Salary packaging isn’t just about saving now. It can also improve your cash flow for investments, reduce the need to borrow for living expenses, enable smarter super contributions, and minimise tax throughout your career.

The Takeaway

If you work in a public hospital and aren’t packaging the full cap, you could be missing out on $5,000 to $6,000 a year. Even if you already package, you might not be doing it efficiently.

We help you understand your full entitlements, avoid common mistakes like overpaying HECS, maximise take-home pay legally and easily, and integrate salary packaging with your tax strategy.

Book Your Salary Packaging Review

Ideal for:


Nurses, doctors, and allied health professionals in *public* or *not-for-profit* hospitals	Anyone earning *$65,000 to $200,000* who wants more take-home pay	Staff are *unsure* if they’re using salary packaging correctly