A mid-year financial review is one of the highest-leverage hours a healthcare locum can spend before 30 June. With the end of FY 2025-26 now three weeks away, AHPRA-registered locums working as sole traders or ABN contractors, whether GPs, pharmacists, physiotherapists, psychologists, nurses, dentists, occupational therapists, paramedics, or specialists, still have enough runway to make decisions that meaningfully affect their tax position. This guide walks through five review areas: income reconciliation, deductions, super top-up headroom, BAS status, and your tax reserve.
This article is general information only and is not personal financial or tax advice. Speak with a registered tax agent for advice specific to your circumstances.
1. Reconcile Your Income by Source
Start by pulling together every income stream for the year: agency shifts, direct workplace engagements, locum platform payments, telehealth sessions, and any teaching or medico-legal work. Each source may have different GST treatment and ABN withholding arrangements, so it pays to separate them.
For locums whose turnover has crossed or is approaching the $75,000 GST registration threshold, confirm whether you are registered and charging GST on invoices. Once registered, GST applies to all taxable supplies; the 10 per cent must be collected and remitted to the ATO, not kept as income. If you are not yet registered but are close to the threshold, monitor your cumulative turnover carefully, as the obligation to register is triggered once you know you will exceed $75,000 in any 12-month period.
Locums working across multiple agencies often find income spread across several ABN statements. Aggregating these now, rather than at tax time in August, makes every subsequent step of this review faster and less stressful.
2. Review Deductions Before 30 June
Legitimate deductions reduce your taxable income, but only for expenses actually incurred before 30 June 2026. Common deductions for healthcare locums include:
Car and travel. If you use the cents-per-kilometre method, the ATO rate for 2025-26 is 88 cents per kilometre, capped at 5,000 business kilometres per car. That cap represents a maximum deduction of $4,400 per vehicle. You do not need fuel receipts under this method, but you do need a reasonable basis for your kilometre count (a diary, calendar, or GPS log). Trips from home to a regular workplace are not deductible; travel between workplaces or to a first workplace that is not your primary base generally is. Use the Sessional cents-per-km tool to log and total kilometres before 30 June.
Professional registration and indemnity. AHPRA registration fees and medical indemnity or professional indemnity insurance premiums paid before 30 June are deductible in the year incurred.
CPD and education. Costs directly connected to your current profession, conference registrations, online courses, journal subscriptions, and relevant reference materials are deductible. Expenses for a new profession or for maintaining a separate career are not.
Work-related equipment and technology. Stethoscopes, clinical tools, a laptop used for clinical work or invoicing, and software subscriptions (including practice management or scheduling tools) are deductible. Items over $300 may need to be depreciated unless you use the instant asset write-off.
Home office. If you genuinely use a dedicated space for administrative work such as invoicing, BAS preparation, or patient correspondence, you may claim a proportion of running costs or use the ATO's fixed-rate method.
If you have been meaning to buy equipment or renew a subscription, doing so before 30 June allows you to claim the deduction this financial year rather than next.
3. Check Your Super Top-Up Headroom
The concessional contributions cap for 2025-26 is $30,000. This covers employer super guarantee (SG) contributions, any salary sacrifice, and personal concessional contributions. The SG rate for 2025-26 is 12 per cent, so a locum earning $200,000 in wages or contractor income subject to SG would have $24,000 of SG contributions alone, leaving $6,000 of concessional headroom.
Sole traders and ABN contractors who pay their own super have full flexibility to make personal concessional contributions and claim a tax deduction by lodging a Notice of Intent to Claim with their super fund before lodging their tax return. Contributions must be received by the fund by 30 June; allow several business days for processing and do not leave this to the last day of the month.
If your total concessional contributions across all sources are below $30,000, topping up is one of the most tax-efficient moves available before year-end. Contributions are taxed at 15 per cent inside the fund, which is lower than the marginal rate for most locums earning above $45,000.
If you have unused concessional cap from prior years (back to FY 2019-20), carry-forward rules may allow you to contribute more than $30,000 in 2025-26, provided your total super balance was below $500,000 on 30 June 2025. Check your super fund or MyGov account for your available carry-forward balance.
4. Confirm Your BAS Is Up to Date
Most sole trader locums with GST turnover under $20 million lodge BAS quarterly. The Q3 BAS (January to March 2026) due date has passed; if you are registered and have not lodged, contact the ATO or your BAS agent promptly to avoid penalties and interest charges.
The Q4 BAS (April to June 2026) will be due approximately 28 July 2026 (or later if lodged through a registered agent). Prepare now by reconciling your GST collected and GST credits for the quarter so that the lodgement is not rushed. Set aside the net GST payable so the funds are available when due.
Locums who have not yet crossed the $75,000 threshold but are voluntary registrants can elect annual GST reporting, which may simplify administration.
5. Sanity-Check Your Tax Reserve
A common problem for ABN locums is discovering at tax time that insufficient funds were set aside for income tax, the Medicare levy, and any HELP debt repayments. As a rough guide, locums earning between $120,000 and $180,000 should have reserved approximately 35 to 40 per cent of gross ABN income for tax obligations. Higher earners will need more.
If you earn predominantly from your own skills and efforts (more than 50 per cent of income from a contract attributable to personal effort), the ATO's PSI rules apply. Under PSI, certain deductions are restricted, particularly those related to associate payments or home office rent, so your taxable income may be higher than expected. Confirm whether PSI applies to your main income streams now, not at lodgement time.
If your reserve looks light, consider making a voluntary PAYG instalment variation or a personal super contribution (reducing taxable income) before 30 June.
How Sessional Helps
The Sessional earnings and tax-reserve dashboard tracks income across all workplaces and sources, flags your estimated tax reserve shortfall in real time, and surfaces your current BAS period totals so you are never caught off guard. The cents-per-km tool logs travel by workplace and calculates your deduction automatically. The super tracker shows your concessional contributions to date and remaining cap headroom. If you need to send invoices or chase outstanding payments before 30 June, the invoice template tool generates compliant ABN invoices with auto-chase reminders. See pricing or visit the help centre to get started.