"I only found out when the return was nearly due."
The deadline is the company's lodgment day, and lodging early brings it forward rather than buying time. By the time most people hear the words "Division 7A" there are weeks left, not months.
Full access is live
Welcome back
Every calculation is unlocked. Change one figure and re-run it as many times as you like — nothing is deducted, nothing counts down, and none of it expires.
Your access
Unlimited
No expiry, nothing to renew
The figures your report is built on
Rate schedule
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Benchmark interest rate
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Next reset
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Shortfall interest charge
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Understand what the report is telling you
Before your company's lodgment day
Don't lose over $100,000. We'll show you your Division 7A loan options.
You have taken money out of your own company. Maybe as drawings, maybe as a transfer, maybe just personal things on the company card that nobody added up. Nothing in the system tells you that it is now a loan — and that if it is not repaid or written down before your company's lodgment day, the whole balance is treated as a dividend with no franking credit at all.
An accountant charges $200 to $350 an hour to work this out, in an appointment three weeks away. We do it in three minutes — your minimum yearly repayment, what a deemed dividend would cost, and every lawful alternative priced beside it.
- Free estimate. No card, no sign up
- Full report $249 — about an hour of an accountant's time
- Built on the 2026-27 rules and the 8.77% benchmark rate
30 second estimate
Two inputs for a quick estimate:
$
$
—
Minimum yearly repayment
$—
for seven years
You could lose
$—
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A rough guide only. The full calculator asks a few more questions and prices every lawful route.
If this is you
If none of this makes sense,
that is not your fault.
Division 7A is nine pages of an Act written for administrators, attached to a deadline nobody sends you a letter about, over money you have already spent.
"Deemed dividend, benchmark rate, distributable surplus — what?"
Every one of those is a real charge with a real figure behind it, written in language nobody outside the profession uses. A deemed dividend is a dividend you are treated as having received. The benchmark rate is what the loan has to charge. The distributable surplus is how much the company could lawfully pay out.
"My mate says just repay it and take it out again."
Section 109R exists for exactly that. A repayment made with the intention of borrowing a similar amount back is disregarded, so the year end balance looks right and nothing has changed. Half the advice at barbecues is a provision somebody already wrote.
"How much is this actually going to cost me?"
That is the question, and it is the one nobody answers without an appointment. It is also pure arithmetic: your marginal rate, the company's rate, the published benchmark rate and the amount. Nothing else.
So we built the thing that was missing.
You type in what came out of the company and what else you are taxed on. We apply the published Division 7A rules, work out every lawful way you are allowed to deal with it, and put them in order. No appointment, no jargon without the plain word beside it, and nobody rings you afterwards.
The ATO won't tell you
It publishes the rules and a repayment calculator, and it does not know your loan
account exists until a return says so. Nothing is sent to you before the deadline.
Your company won't tell you
You are the company. The loan account is a line in your own books and it only
becomes a problem at year end, by which time the money is gone.
Your accountant will — for $200 to $350 an hour
And for a complicated one that is the right call. Most people do not need an
opinion. They need the four numbers that decide it, before the appointment rather
than during it.
Two questions, thirty seconds, and you will know roughly where you stand. It costs nothing.
The loss
Two directors. The same $200,000.
$107,810 apart.
Both took the same money out of the same kind of company, and both are on the same income. One of them wrote it down before the lodgment day.
Guessed
Did nothing about it
- No written agreement before the lodgment day
- $200,000 treated as a dividend under section 109D
- Unfrankable, so no credit for the company tax already paid
- Shortfall interest and a 25% penalty on top — and the loan is still owed
Tax, interest and penalty
$130,864
Worked it out
Put it on a complying loan
- Written agreement signed before the lodgment day
- Seven year term at the published benchmark rate
- Minimum yearly repayment of $39,432, diarised against 30 June
- No dividend, no penalty, no amended assessment
Tax and charges caused
$23,054
Same money out. Same rules. One of them lost this.
$107,810
That is $15,401 for every year of a seven year loan agreement that was never signed. And
neither of them did anything wrong with the money — there are eight lawful ways to
deal with a loan account and the first director was never shown any of them.
The report that stops this being you costs $249.
Both directors are invented. What is not invented is the arithmetic: the — tax scale, the Medicare levy, the — benchmark interest rate the ATO published for this income year, the shortfall interest charge and the base penalty in section 284-90 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953. All of it is published, and the calculator applies it to whatever you enter.
The alternatives
Three ways to answer this question.
Two of them cost you.
| Guess What most people do |
Your accountant A registered tax agent |
Division 7A Calculator This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Nothing now, up to 47% later |
$200 – $350 an hour | $249 |
| How long it takes | An afternoon of worrying | The next available appointment | Under 3 minutes |
| Every lawful route priced | |||
| Working shown, line by line | Usually not | ||
| Can give you a recommendation |
The last row is not a slip. This is an information service and it is not licensed to recommend one route over another, which is why the report ranks on a stated measure and stops there. For anything genuinely complicated — an interposed entity, a trust in the chain, a dispute already on foot — a registered tax agent is the right call, and this report is a cheaper hour to hand them than an hour spent gathering the figures.
The clock
Three dates that change what this costs you
Division 7A runs on deadlines rather than on decisions. Miss one and the choice has been made for you, at the most expensive price on the list, and it cannot be made again.
To repay it or write it down
Section 109D(6) makes it the earlier of the day your company's return is due and the day it is actually lodged — so lodging early brings it forward. Before it, the drawing can be repaid or put on a complying agreement. After it, the whole balance has already been treated as a dividend taxed at up to —. The deadlines, in full.
For a loan already running
The minimum yearly repayment has to have reached the company by the last day of the income year. A payment made on 2 July is a payment for the following year, and the shortfall in the year it missed is a deemed dividend for that year. These figures are the — schedule.
When the rate resets
The benchmark interest rate is set for each income year and the minimum repayment is recomputed at the new one, for the whole remaining term, whether or not anybody writes to say so. It went from — last year to this year's rate. Shortfall interest is running at — in the meantime, and it is no longer deductible.
The report
The Division 7A Decision Report
The free estimate tells you roughly where you stand. This is the part that gives you the actual numbers and puts every route in order. Eleven sections and twelve charts, on your own figures, with every working shown so you can check it, argue with it, or hand it to your accountant.
Free — tells you there is a decision
- Your minimum yearly repayment, exactly, on both terms
- What a deemed dividend would cost, with the interest and penalty
- Every lawful route named, with what each one means in plain English
- The gap between the cheapest and the dearest, as a band
- Whether your property clears the 110% test for the longer term
What stops the loss — $249
- Every route priced to the dollar and put in order on one measure
- The year by year repayment ledger — balance, interest and repayment for each income year
- Where each route's cost goes: your tax, the company's, the ATO's interest and penalty
- The split between a dividend and a loan that costs least on your income
- The income at which the cheapest route stops being the cheapest
- What a benchmark rate rise does to every year of the repayment
- The general process for each route, step by step, and the dates behind it
- The assistant, on your own figures, with no limit
- The whole thing as a PDF you can print, charts included
See a real one, free — an invented shareholder run all the way through, with the open half exactly as a customer sees it, and the assistant live on it for two questions.
How it works
Your Division 7A position in three steps
If you can read a bank statement, you can use this. Simple mode asks four questions. Advanced puts every assumption on the table if you want to argue with one.
Tell us what came out
The loan account balance, your other taxable income, the company's tax rate, and whether there is property behind it. We do not ask for your name, your tax file number, your ABN or any bank detail, because none of those change the answer.
See where you stand, free
Your minimum yearly repayment to the dollar, what doing nothing would cost, every lawful route named and explained, and the gap between the cheapest and the dearest as a band.
Stop the expensive one
$249 opens the full report: every route priced and ranked, the repayment ledger, and the split that costs least on your own income. PDF included, ready to hand to your accountant.
Built on Division 7A itself
Part III Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, the benchmark interest rate the ATO publishes for each income year under section 109N(2), and the 2026-27 individual and company tax rates.
Every working shown
Nothing is a black box. Every figure in the report carries the arithmetic that produced it and the section it comes from, so your accountant can check it in minutes.
Not advice, and we say so
We are not licensed to tell you what to do, and the arithmetic is the part most people are missing rather than the opinion. The report ranks and refuses to recommend.
Refunded if it does not fit
If the report does not apply to your circumstances, tell us what went wrong within 14 days and it is refunded in full.
Included with the report
And if you do not follow something,
just ask it.
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report — your figures, your routes, your numbers — and answers questions about it in plain English. Not a search box and not a help page. It knows what your report says because it has been given it.
Ask Agent
Why does the loan cost me $20,748 when I am paying $68,421 of interest?
Because most of that interest is not a cost — it is a transfer from you to a company you own. What it costs is the tax that leaks on the round trip: you pay it out of already taxed money, the company is assessed on it, and by the time it comes back as a franked dividend each dollar has cost you your own marginal rate of 39%. Discounted back to today, that is $20,748.
What does "unfrankable" actually mean?
That the dividend comes with no franking credit attached. Your company has already paid 25% tax on the profits the money came out of. On a proper dividend that tax comes with it as a credit and reduces your bill. On a deemed dividend, section 202-45(g) says it does not — so the same money is taxed twice, which is the whole reason the do-nothing row costs $115,980.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures.
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It has your report, not a script Why is this route cheaper? What if my income changes? What does section 109R mean for me? It answers from your own figures and quotes them back.
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Plain English, on a subject that is anything but It is built for this one subject and told to explain rather than impress — no acronym without the meaning attached, short answers, and no lecture.
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Entirely optional. Use it or ignore it. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it, and nothing is sent anywhere unless you ask it something.
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It is never told who you are What it receives is the figures on your report — amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a tax file number, an ABN or a bank detail, because we do not hold those. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given.
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Nothing is kept The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it. We record that a question was asked so we know the feature is used — never what it said. Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
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It explains. It does not advise. It will tell you what the rules say, what each route costs and where the figures come from, and it will not tell you what to do — the same line the report itself holds. Nothing here is tax advice.
Pricing
About an hour of an accountant's time,
for the whole answer.
One payment, no expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It opens the whole report and lets you redo the sums as often as you like, for as long as you like — which matters, because a loan account changes every year.
The only thing you can lose here is the price of the pass — and you cannot lose that either.
If it does not fit your situation, tell us what went wrong within 14 days and we refund you in full.
Prices in Australian dollars. Paid securely through PayPal — card or PayPal balance, no account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
Questions
The questions everyone asks first
It comes from the formula in section 109E(6) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936: the balance still owing at the end of last year, multiplied by this year's benchmark interest rate, divided by one minus one over one plus that rate raised to the number of years left in the term. For 2026-27 the benchmark rate is 8.77%. On a $200,000 loan with seven years to run that is about $39,432 a year.
Miss any part of it and the shortfall — not the whole loan, just the shortfall — becomes a deemed dividend for that year.
8.77%, up from 8.37% in 2025-26. The ATO sets it from the Reserve Bank's standard variable housing loan rate for owner-occupiers, taking the figure last published before the income year starts.
A complying loan has to charge at least that rate for every year after the year the loan was made, and the minimum repayment is recomputed at the current year's rate each time — which is why a loan written when the rate was 4.52% is being repaid at today's.
It is added to your taxable income and taxed at your marginal rate. Because it is unfrankable under section 202-45 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 there is no franking credit to put against it, so at the top rate that is 47% of the amount with nothing back — even though the company has already paid 25% on the profits the money came out of.
Shortfall interest at 7.43% a year can be added on the amended assessment, and an administrative penalty of 25% to 75% of the shortfall on top of that. And the loan itself still has to be repaid.
No. On 10 June 2026 the High Court decided in Commissioner of Taxation v Bendel [2026] HCA 18 that an unpaid present entitlement owed by a trust to a corporate beneficiary is not, by itself, a loan for section 109D. The ATO accepted that in its decision impact statement of 26 June 2026 and is withdrawing the determination that said otherwise.
What has not gone away is Subdivision EA, which still bites where the trust lends to a shareholder of that company, and section 100A. The decision, explained.
No. Section 109R disregards a repayment where, at the time it was made, there was an intention to borrow a similar or larger amount back from the company. The provision exists for exactly that arrangement, and a payment on 29 June followed by a drawing on 2 July is the pattern it was written about.
It does not stop ordinary business banking. What it stops is a repayment made only so that the year end figure looks right.
No. This is an information service: it applies the published Division 7A rules to the figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks routes on one stated arithmetic measure and does not recommend one.
Whether the cash exists, whether the company has a distributable surplus, whether an interposed entity is involved and what your own agreements say are not in that measure. Your actual position is determined by the ATO on assessment and by the agreement and accounts your registered tax agent lodges.
The lodgment day only comes round once.
Before it, this is a choice between eight lawful routes and the cheapest of them may cost you nothing at all. After it, section 109D has already chosen the most expensive one, and there is no going back and doing the paperwork later. Three minutes now is the cheapest three minutes in the whole process.
No card. No sign up. Your answer on the next screen.
Your minimum yearly repayment, and what doing nothing would cost. Both free, both on the next screen.
Division 7A Loan & Deemed Dividend Calculator
Most Division 7A calculators work out the repayment. This one prices what the wrong answer costs you — the deemed dividend, the interest and the penalty — then puts every lawful way of dealing with it side by side, so you can see for yourself which one leaves the most.
Six short questions. At the end you get your minimum yearly repayment, what a deemed dividend would cost, and every lawful alternative priced beside it — free.
Step 1
Just started
Figures as at —.
Your estimate
What dealing with this the wrong way would cost you
Which rules and charges apply to you
The part that decides which route you take
You could lose $0
The gap between the cheapest lawful way of dealing with your loan account and the most expensive one, on the figures you just entered.
An hour of a qualified accountant's time
$200 – $350
Getting it wrong
—
This report, right now
$249
Unlock every route, priced and ranked
You can provide a different email to use as your login - or the PayPal one
Secured by PayPal
Refundable
Nothing renews
And you can ask it questions. Your report comes with an assistant that has read it and explains any figure in plain English — if you want it. It is given the amounts on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
The only thing you can lose here is the price of the pass — and you cannot lose that either.
If it does not fit your situation, tell us what went wrong within 14 days and
we refund you in full.
Not deciding today?
Send this estimate to yourself — free
Your minimum yearly repayment, what a deemed dividend would cost, and a link that brings this run straight back — so it is still here when you sit down with your accountant.
One email, then only if the figures change or a deadline is close. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Before your lodgment day
Every lawful route priced, for about an hour of an accountant's time
A deemed dividend is taxed at your full marginal rate with no franking credit, and the loan is still owed afterwards. The report prices every lawful way of dealing with your loan account on your own figures, puts them in order on one stated measure, and shows the year by year repayment behind each one.
The only thing you can lose here is $249 — and you cannot lose that either.
If it does not fit your situation, tell us what went wrong within 14 days and we refund you
in full. See a sample report before you buy.
Before you decide
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it — nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a Medicare number, tax file number or bank detail — we do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
No. You pay once and the access is yours. There is no subscription and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never even see your card number.
No, and nothing on this site is. The report tells you what each route costs and what the general process for it looks like; the written agreement that makes a loan complying under section 109N is a document your registered tax agent or your solicitor prepares, and it has to be in place before your company's lodgment day.
What the report is good for is the conversation before that: knowing which route you are asking them to document, and why, rather than paying somebody to work that out from scratch.
Division 7A Calculator provides information, not financial product advice. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice and we never tell you which option to pick. What we do is apply the published rules to the figures you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your real position is determined by the Australian Taxation Office when it assesses or amends your return, and by the written loan agreement and company accounts your registered tax agent prepares and lodges.
Checkout
Pay once and the full report opens on the figures you have already entered. Nothing renews and nothing expires.
What you are getting
Total
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Secured by PayPal
Pay by PayPal or card
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Worked examples
Ten shareholders. Ten real Division 7A answers.
Every one of these has money out of their own company. Not one figure on this page was typed in: the situations are written down, the calculator prices them at page load, and whatever it produces is what the card shows. Change the benchmark rate and this page changes with it.
First, the three things nobody explains
1
A loan account is a loan, whatever anybody called it
Drawings, personal expenses on the company card, the company paying your rates, a company asset used at home. It all adds up in one line in the company's books, and at year end Division 7A treats that line as a loan to a shareholder.
2
A deemed dividend carries no franking credit
Your company has already paid tax on the profits the money came out of. On a proper dividend that tax comes with it as a credit. On a deemed dividend, section 202-45 says it does not — so the same money is taxed twice, and the loan is still owed afterwards.
3
The cheapest route depends on your income, not the amount
A complying loan costs your marginal rate on the interest, so it is cheapest for somebody on a low rate. A franked dividend costs the gap between your rate and the company's, so below the company rate it refunds money rather than costing any. Two shareholders with identical loan accounts can have opposite answers.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for ten different shareholders. Worked out on the current schedule.
None of these is you.
Your own figure turns on four things and only four: how much came out, what else you are taxed on, whether the company is on 25% or 30%, and whether there is property behind it. Change any one of them and the order of the routes changes. It takes about three minutes.
Your options, side by side
Every lawful way of dealing with the $180,000 Daniel has taken out of his company, and what each one costs. Same money, same company — the difference is only in how it is documented and when. Ranked on one measure: the total tax and charges each route causes, in today's dollars. Open Show Details on any of them.
The short version
Four numbers. Everything else in this report explains where they came from.
Costs the least
$0
Repay it in full before the lodgment day
Costs the most
$115,980
Do nothing — the deemed unfranked dividend
Between them
$115,980
On the same money, under the same rules
Minimum yearly repayment
$35,489
On a 7 year complying loan at 8.77%
The measure. Every route is ranked on the total tax and charges it causes, brought back to today's dollars at the benchmark interest rate of 8.77%. Money moving between Daniel and his own company is not counted, because it does not make anybody poorer. Tax that leaves the group is.
Daniel's marginal rate is 39.00% on other income of $165,000, and the company rate is 25%. Almost every figure in this report moves when either of those does.
The eight routes, drawn to scale
The same figures as the list above. The shorter the bar, the less tax and charges that route causes.
The minimum yearly repayment, year by year
Section 109E(6) applied to $180,000 over seven years at 8.77%. The repayment looks flat and is not: the interest inside it falls every year as the balance does, and the principal rises to match.
| Income year | Years left | Opening balance | Minimum repayment | Interest | Principal | Closing balance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-27 | 7 | $180,000 | $35,489 | $15,786 | $19,703 | $160,297 |
| 2027-28 | 6 | $160,297 | $35,489 | $14,058 | $21,431 | $138,867 |
| 2028-29 | 5 | $138,867 | $35,489 | $12,179 | $23,310 | $115,556 |
| 2029-30 | 4 | $115,556 | $35,489 | $10,134 | $25,354 | $90,202 |
| 2030-31 | 3 | $90,202 | $35,489 | $7,911 | $27,578 | $62,624 |
| 2031-32 | 2 | $62,624 | $35,489 | $5,492 | $29,997 | $32,627 |
| 2032-33 | 1 | $32,627 | $35,489 | $2,861 | $32,627 | $0 |
Every figure is rounded to the nearest dollar. The calculation itself runs to the cent, so a row may occasionally look a dollar out where two rounded columns are added together. The balances are the real ones.
Total repaid over the term: $248,421, of which $68,421 is interest. That interest is paid out of money Daniel has already been taxed on, and is assessable again in the company.
Future years are priced at today's 8.77%. Nobody knows what the benchmark rate will be in three years, and it has moved from 4.52% to 8.77% in five income years. The full report prices the whole range instead of pretending otherwise.
Why the repayment went up without anybody writing
The benchmark rate is reset every 1 July and the minimum repayment is recomputed at the new one, for the whole remaining term. These are the rates the ATO has published for the last ten income years.
Seven years or twenty five
Daniel's property is worth $620,000 with $300,000 secured over it in priority, leaving $320,000 against a required $198,000. That passes the 110% cover test, so both terms are open to him.
| 7 years, unsecured | 25 years, secured | |
|---|---|---|
| First minimum yearly repayment | $35,489 | $17,985 |
| Total repaid over the term | $248,421 | $449,619 |
| Interest inside that | $68,421 | $269,619 |
| Years of repayments | 7 | 25 |
5 more sections, and the charts in them
- 07Where each route's cost actually goes
- 08Where the answer changes hands
- 09The split that costs least
- 10If nothing is done at all
- 11The dates that decide this
Everything above is real arithmetic on an invented shareholder. Run yours and this half opens on your own figures.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the amounts on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
That is somebody else's answer. Yours takes about three minutes and costs nothing.
We could not find that link
The link may have already been used. If you are still getting emails, write to us and we will stop them by hand.
Guides
Division 7A, explained properly
Written for the person who owns the company rather than for the person who lodges its return. Every figure is this income year's, every section is named so you can check it, and every calculation is written out rather than asserted — which is the part the official pages leave to your accountant.
Reading is useful. Knowing what your own loan account is about to cost you is better.
What it costs
Division 7A penalties and shortfall interest
A deemed dividend rarely arrives alone. Shortfall interest runs on the tax at 7.43% a year from the day the original assessment was due — and since 1 July 2025 it is no longer deductible. On top of that, a base penalty of 25% to 75% of the shortfall can be applied.
The shortfall interest charge
When an assessment is amended to include an amount that should have been in it, the tax was payable years ago and was not paid. The shortfall interest charge is what compensates for that period.
It runs on the tax shortfall from the day the original assessment was due until the day the amended one is due. It is set every quarter at the 90 day Bank Accepted Bill rate plus three percentage points, and for the quarter beginning 1 July 2026 the annual rate is 7.43%.
It is deliberately lower than the general interest charge, on the reasoning that a taxpayer who did not know about a shortfall could not have paid it. Once the amended assessment falls due, though, the general interest charge takes over at 11.43% a year, and that one is aimed at a debt somebody knows about.
$93,200 of tax × two years at 7.43% ≈ $14,400 of shortfall interest
The change most advice has not caught up with
Until 30 June 2025 both charges were deductible. Amounts of general interest charge and shortfall interest charge incurred on or after 1 July 2025 are not, and there is no grandfathering — it applies even where the underlying debt relates to a much earlier year.
The practical effect is larger than it sounds. A deductible charge at a 39% marginal rate cost about 61 cents in the dollar. The same charge now costs a dollar. That is roughly a sixty per cent increase in the real cost of the same delay, and it makes a Division 7A shortfall materially more expensive than the identical shortfall two years ago.
Remission of interest is still available. The law about requesting it did not change; only the deductibility did.
The administrative penalty
A penalty is not automatic. It is imposed under section 284-90 of Schedule 1 to the Taxation Administration Act 1953 where there was a failure to meet the required standard of care, and the rate depends on what the taxpayer actually did:
| Conduct | Base penalty | On $93,200 of tax |
|---|---|---|
| Failure to take reasonable care | 25% | $23,300 |
| Recklessness | 50% | $46,600 |
| Intentional disregard | 75% | $69,900 |
An ordinary undocumented loan account — drawings that were never written up, by somebody who did not know the rules existed — usually sits at the first of those, and often attracts no penalty at all where the position was reasonably arguable and disclosed. Recklessness and intentional disregard are aimed at conduct rather than at ignorance.
The base penalty can also be increased by 20% where there has been a previous shortfall penalty, and reduced where there has been a voluntary disclosure.
What reduces it
A voluntary disclosure. Telling the ATO about a shortfall before it starts examining your affairs reduces the base penalty, and for a disclosure made early the reduction is substantial. Made after an examination has begun, it reduces it by less. It does not touch the tax or the interest — it changes the part that is still within your control.
Remission. The Commissioner may remit a penalty in whole or in part, taking account of the circumstances. A first failure, a genuine reliance on an adviser, or prompt corrective action are the kinds of facts that support it.
Reasonable care actually taken. Where a taxpayer took reasonable care — sought advice, kept records, acted on what they were told — the conduct threshold for a penalty may not be met at all.
Where section 109RB fits
Section 109RB is about the dividend rather than about the interest or the penalty. Where the Commissioner exercises it to allow the dividend to be franked under section 109RC, the tax shortfall itself becomes much smaller — and because both the interest and the penalty are calculated on the shortfall, they shrink with it.
It does not remit either of them directly. Requests for remission of interest and of penalty are made separately, and it is worth pointing out in a penalty request that a finding of honest mistake sits awkwardly beside a penalty for failing to take reasonable care. What the discretion asks for.
How long the exposure lasts
The Commissioner generally has four years to amend an assessment, and no time limit at all where there has been fraud or evasion. So a loan account that was never dealt with three years ago is not safe because time has passed — and while it waits, the shortfall interest charge is accruing on tax nobody has assessed yet.
How this is usually dealt with
The general process, once a shortfall has been identified:
- the correct year is established, because Division 7A dividends belong to the year the loan was made or the repayment was missed rather than to the year the problem was noticed;
- the tax shortfall is calculated on the correct year's rates, since interest and penalty are both worked out on it;
- whether section 109RB or section 109Q is available on the facts is assessed before anything is lodged, because the shortfall changes if either applies;
- a voluntary disclosure is considered before the ATO raises the question, since the reduction depends on getting there first;
- the interest is provided for from the day the original assessment was due, not from the date of the amendment;
- and requests for remission of interest and of penalty are prepared as separate matters with their own facts.
See what the interest and the penalty would add on your own figures
The calculator itemises them rather than assuming them, and lets you change how long the shortfall runs and which penalty rate applies.
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About
Why this exists
Somebody who owns a small private company takes money out of it across a year. Some of it is drawings, some of it is a personal expense that went through the business account, some of it is a transfer nobody wrote a note about. Nothing announces itself, nothing arrives in the post, and then at some point — usually late, usually in a hurry — they are told the words "Division 7A" and that there is a deadline they have possibly already passed. The amounts are ordinary: thirty thousand dollars, or two hundred thousand. The tax on getting it wrong is not.
None of the rules are secret. They are Part III Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936: section 109D for a loan, section 109E for the minimum yearly repayment, section 109N for what makes a loan complying, section 109Y for the distributable surplus, and section 202-45 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 for the part that makes it expensive — a deemed dividend cannot be franked. The benchmark interest rate is published by the ATO for every income year. The tax scale, the Medicare levy, the company rates, the shortfall interest charge and the penalty rates are all published too. What almost nobody ever sees is their own figures run through all of it at once, because it is spread across a dozen documents written for administrators and reindexed on a cycle nobody outside the profession follows.
Division 7A Calculator does one thing: it applies those published rules to your figures and shows you, in full, what they produce. Your minimum yearly repayment to the dollar. What a deemed dividend would cost, with the interest and the penalty itemised. Every lawful route priced on one stated measure and put in order, with the arithmetic beside each one so you can check it, argue with it, or hand it to somebody who can.
We do not tell you what to do. We are not licensed to, and frankly the arithmetic is the part people are missing rather than the opinion — which is why the report ranks routes and stops there rather than recommending one. For anything genuinely complicated, a registered tax agent is the right call, and this report is a cheaper hour to hand them than an hour spent gathering the figures. The mistakes that cost the most is the guide worth reading first if you are not sure whether any of this applies to you.
Privacy Policy
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
1. About this policy
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
2. What we never collect
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file numbers, Australian Business Numbers or bank account numbers, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act — health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
3. What we collect, and why
Information you give us
- Account details — first and last name, email address, and optionally phone, suburb, state, postcode and your relationship to the person entering care. Used to create and secure your account and to deliver what you bought.
- Saved reports — the figures you entered and the results produced, stored against your account only if you choose to save one. Used so you can return to and compare them.
- Purchases — the order, amount, currency, access period and the PayPal transaction reference. Used to grant access, issue receipts and meet our tax and record keeping obligations.
- Correspondence — what you write to us and our reply. Used to answer you and to resolve disputes.
- Email estimates and reviews — the email address you give us to receive a free estimate, and any review you submit for publication.
Information collected automatically
- Technical data — IP address, browser user agent, device type, screen and viewport size, and the referring page.
- Activity data — the pages you open, the order you open them in, time spent on each, how far you scroll, which calculator steps you complete, and which buttons you press. Used to understand where the site is confusing and to improve it.
- Advertising identifiers — where you arrive from an advertisement, the click identifier appended to the link (for example Google's gclid) and any campaign parameters, so we can measure which advertising works.
4. Where the calculation happens
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
- If you ask us to email your free estimate, the headline figure that estimate produced is stored with your email address so the estimate we send you is the one you saw.
- If you use the optional report assistant, the figures in the report you have open are sent to us and on to the service that answers it. That is the only part of this site that sends anything to a third party, and section 5 sets out exactly what does and does not travel.
5. The report assistant
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
- A plain-text summary of the figures in the report you have open — the amounts, categories and comparisons the report already shows you on screen.
- The question you typed, and the questions and answers already in that conversation, so a follow-up makes sense.
What is not sent
- Your name. The name field on the calculator is optional and is used only on your own report cover. It is not part of what the assistant is given.
- Your email address, your account, your phone number or your street address. The assistant is not told who you are, and is given no way to find out.
- Your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file numbers, Australian Business Numbers or bank account numbers, bank account or card details — we never hold these in the first place. See section 2.
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia — see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
- The summary of your figures is held in our server's memory for one hour so a conversation does not have to re-send it with every question, and is then discarded. It is never written to our database.
- The conversation itself is stored in your own browser tab and is gone when you close that tab. We do not keep a copy.
- We record that a question was asked, and how long it was, so we know whether the feature is used. We do not record what it said.
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
6. Cookies and browser storage
We use the following, and nothing else:
- An authentication cookie — set only when you sign in, so you stay signed in. Strictly necessary.
- A guest identifier — so a scenario saved before you register can be attached to your account when you do.
- A session key (browser session storage) — identifies one visit for the activity data described above. It is a random value and is discarded when you close the tab.
- A visitor key (browser local storage) — a random value kept for up to twelve months so we can tell a returning visitor from a new one. It contains no personal information and is not shared with anyone.
- Preferences — your light or dark theme choice.
You can clear or block these through your browser at any time. Clearing them will sign you out and reset your preferences; the site will otherwise work normally.
7. Analytics and advertising
We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and — when you complete a purchase — the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, the Australian Taxation Office, your tax agent, your accountant or any lender, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on, and you can adjust personalised advertising in your Google account settings.
8. Payments
Payments are processed by PayPal. Your card or account details are entered on PayPal's systems and are never transmitted to, seen by, or stored on our servers. We receive only the transaction reference, the amount, the status and the email address associated with the payment.
9. Who we disclose information to
- Service providers who host the site, send our email and process payments, and only so they can perform that function.
- Google, as described in sections 5 and 7.
- Professional advisers — our accountants and lawyers, under obligations of confidence.
- A purchaser of our business, if it is ever sold, on terms that require them to honour this policy.
- Law enforcement, courts or regulators, where we are required or authorised by law.
10. Overseas disclosure
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
11. Security
The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
12. How long we keep it
- Account and saved reports — until you delete them or ask us to.
- Order and payment records — seven years, as required by Australian tax law. We cannot delete these earlier, even on request.
- Activity data — up to twenty‑six months, then deleted or aggregated so it no longer identifies anyone.
- Email leads — until you unsubscribe, then only the record needed to honour that unsubscribe.
13. Direct marketing
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email — receipts, access details and password resets — because those are not marketing.
14. Accessing, correcting and deleting your information
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
- give you access to the personal information we hold about you, or explain why we cannot;
- correct anything inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading;
- delete your account and every scenario attached to it, subject to the retention periods in section 12.
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
15. Complaints
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
16. Children
The site is intended for company directors, shareholders and their associates who have taken money out of a private company. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
17. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
18. Contact
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Terms of Service
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most — please read it before you rely on anything here.
1. Agreement
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
2. Eligibility
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and the rates the ATO publishes under it only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
3. What this service is
Division 7A Calculator is an information and calculation service. It applies Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 and the rates the ATO publishes under it to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
4. What it is not
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
- We do not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence and are not authorised representatives of any licensee.
- We do not know your full circumstances, objectives, financial situation or needs, and nothing produced by the site takes them into account.
- Where the report ranks options it does so on a single arithmetic measure that deliberately ignores everything a number cannot capture — health, family circumstances, tax position, estate planning, the way a payment or a loan is documented and repaid, and what actually matters to you.
- We receive no commission and have no relationship with any your company, your trust, your tax agent and the Australian Taxation Office.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
5. Accuracy and estimates
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
- All output is an estimate based on the figures you entered. If those figures are wrong, incomplete or out of date, the output will be too.
- Your actual position is determined by the Australian Taxation Office when it assesses or amends your return, and by the written loan agreement and company accounts your registered tax agent prepares and lodges. Those prevail over anything the site produces.
- Rates, thresholds and caps change by legislation and indexation, and legislation can change without notice or retrospectively.
- Projections rely on assumptions about the future — investment returns, indexation, home values, length of stay — which are inherently uncertain and will not be accurate.
Always confirm before you act.
6. Your responsibility for decisions
You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
7. Accounts
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us immediately at support@calculatedchoices.com.au if you suspect unauthorised use. We may suspend or close an account we reasonably believe is being used in breach of these terms.
8. Passes, price and payment
- A pass grants access to the full report from the moment payment is confirmed, and it does not expire. It does not renew and nothing is charged automatically. There is no subscription and no card is kept on file.
- Prices are in Australian dollars and include GST where applicable. We may change prices at any time; the price shown when you buy is the price you pay.
- Payment is processed by PayPal under its own terms. We do not receive your card details.
- A pass is for personal or single household use. It is not transferable and may not be shared, resold or used to provide a service to others.
9. Reports you export
A report you export as a PDF or otherwise save remains yours to keep and to show to family, an adviser or a registered tax agent. That licence is personal and non‑commercial. It does not permit republication, resale, or use as part of a product or service you provide to others.
10. Refunds
Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
11. Acceptable use
You must not:
- scrape, crawl, harvest, mirror or systematically extract the site or its content;
- attempt to access the paid report engine, any account, or any data without authorisation;
- reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to derive the source of any part of the service;
- interfere with the site's operation or security, or impose an unreasonable load on it;
- resell, sublicense or commercially exploit the service or its output;
- use the site to provide financial, legal or placement advice to third parties; or
- use it unlawfully, or to infringe anyone's rights.
12. Intellectual property
All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
13. Availability
We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
14. Third parties
The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
15. Australian Consumer Law
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
16. Limitation of liability
Subject always to section 15, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
- the site and its output are provided "as is" and "as available", and we exclude all warranties, conditions, guarantees and representations not expressly set out in these terms, whether express, implied, statutory or otherwise, including as to accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, merchantability and non‑infringement;
- we are not liable for any indirect, incidental, special, punitive or consequential loss, or for any loss of profit, revenue, savings, opportunity, goodwill, data, anticipated benefit, or for any loss arising from a decision made or not made in reliance on the site, however arising and whether in contract, tort (including negligence), statute or otherwise, even if we were advised of the possibility;
- our total aggregate liability to you for all claims connected with the site or these terms is limited, at our election, to resupplying the service or to refunding the amount you actually paid us in the twelve months before the claim arose; and
- where liability cannot be excluded but can be limited, it is limited as set out above.
You agree that this allocation of risk is reasonable given the price of the service and that the service is information rather than advice.
Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
17. Indemnity
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your provision of the site's output to a third party who relies on it. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach, negligence or wilful misconduct.
18. Termination
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms. Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 survive termination.
19. Privacy
Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
20. Governing law
These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
21. General
- Changes. We may amend these terms. The effective date changes when we do, and material changes will be notified by email or on the site before they take effect. The terms in force when you bought a pass govern that purchase.
- Severability. If a provision is unenforceable it is read down to the minimum extent necessary, or severed, without affecting the rest.
- Waiver. A failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it.
- Assignment. You may not assign these terms without our consent. We may assign them on a sale of the business.
- Entire agreement. These terms and the Privacy Policy are the entire agreement between us about the site.
22. Contact
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au