AFSA Indexed Amounts: Practitioner Reference 2026

Choose the Published Amount for the Question

Start with the decision you need to make. An income threshold, an asset exemption and a credit disclosure limit answer different questions.

Use the Bankruptcy Act 1966 with the Bankruptcy Regulations 2021. Those provisions determine which event selects the amount. Applying today’s published figure to every transaction in an older file can produce the wrong comparison.

Read Income Thresholds and Dependant Categories

The annual Base Income Threshold Amount (BITA) in the selected AFSA published schedule is $77,886.90. The Actual Income Threshold Amount (AITA) changes with the number of qualifying dependants.

The schedule’s dependant-income ceiling is $4,697 for the contribution assessment period. A dependant must also reside with the bankrupt and depend wholly or partly on them for economic support. A family relationship alone does not establish dependant status.

These annual thresholds are inputs to an assessment. Assessable income is a separate amount established under the statutory income rules, including applicable tax and child-support adjustments. A calculated contribution is the resulting liability.

Before using a table row, establish the assessment period’s length and the assessment time. Record each dependant’s residence, support and income evidence. A shorter assessment period requires the statutory proportionate threshold. The trustee in bankruptcy applies the selected inputs to the contribution assessment.

Distinguish Protected Property and Other Statutory Limits

Protected-property amounts apply to specified assets and conditions. The schedule does not give every asset below a listed value an exemption.

For a financed vehicle, record its value and the finance balance separately. The relevant equity comparison uses their difference. Ownership, qualifying use and the applicable bankruptcy financial year still need to be established before advising that it can be retained.

Trustee remuneration has separate historical appointment and estate categories. Use the official applicability rows for those categories instead of applying the displayed default to every estate. Employee priority is a statutory distribution rule, not a guarantee that the estate has funds to pay the claim.

The schedule also lists Official Receiver attendance and travel advances. Attendance is $28. The published advance is $28 for aircraft or private motor vehicle travel and $14 for another transport method. These are the specified allowances or advances, not a general cap on all travel reimbursement.

Check Debt Agreement and Disclosure Amounts

Part IX uses separate monetary tests for unsecured debts, divisible property and income. Meeting a single test does not establish eligibility for a debt agreement.

Keep the supporting debt balances and security valuations with the eligibility schedule. Use the legally relevant divisible-property amount instead of substituting the client’s gross asset total. The debt agreement process also has conditions beyond these monetary limits.

The published credit disclosure limit is $7,554. It concerns disclosure of bankruptcy or debt agreement status before specified credit and related transactions above the limit. It does not approve borrowing or establish debt agreement eligibility. The schedule also uses $7,554 for its specified misleading-conduct objection category.

Record the transaction type, amount and applicable status before using that limit. Read the cited provisions for their coverage and aggregation rules. The Bankruptcy Act supplies the governing legal framework.

Preserve the Schedule Basis in the Advice File

Keep enough evidence for another practitioner to repeat the threshold selection. Save the official schedule alongside the client records and identify the row used.

Consider this fictional file. A practitioner assesses a full-year contribution period while the displayed income schedule applies. The evidence establishes two qualifying dependants. The selected annual AITA is $98,916.36. The practitioner retains the assessment date and period, dependant evidence and a copy of the official schedule showing that category.

Selecting this threshold leaves the income assessment and contribution calculation to the separate assessment work.

For a historical question, open AFSA’s historical indexations and find the category’s applicability row. Keep the exact effective boundaries in the working file. When official versions show different amounts, reconcile the category and effective period against that history and the governing provision before selecting a value.

If the relevant period predates the displayed schedule, retrieve its official historical row. If that row does not resolve the question, obtain the relevant official schedule from AFSA. Do not reconstruct a legal threshold by applying a guessed index. Record the selected amount, its legal trigger and the source copy before using it in the client’s financial schedule.