General Taxation Information
The Australian Taxation Office provides information about taxation and scholarships. It is the responsibility of individual students to obtain independent tax advice to ensure that their individual circumstances are covered.
As a general guide, payment of a scholarship allowance is exempt from income tax when all of the following conditions are fulfilled:
- the payment is to a student enrolled in a full time course
- the student is not required to be or become an employee of the University or a scholarship sponsor as a condition of the scholarship
- the terms of the scholarship do not amount to a contract for labour with the scholarship sponsor or the university, and
- the scholarship is provided principally for educational purposes.
The scholarship sponsor is the organisation providing funds to the University for scholarship payments.
See Concurrent Scholarship Awards for information on when and from what source Commonwealth and Access scholarships are paid.
Part-time Students
Scholarships may only be held on a part-time basis because of exceptional extenuating circumstances.
Scholarships held by students who are enrolled on a part-time basis are not tax exempt. For payments subject to income tax, the University is required to withhold PAYG tax from the scholarship payment at the student's marginal tax rate or as required by the tax declaration form. The University's Human Resources department posts PAYG Summaries to part time students by 14 July each year.
More information
For more information on whether or not your scholarship is taxable please go to the Scholarship page on the ATO website.