Private Health Insurance Tax Claim Code List: A to F

Australia’s private health insurance tax claim codes are a set of six letters, A through F, that you put on your tax return to tell the ATO how your policy fits your family situation. Your code depends on three things as at 30 June: whether you were single or had a spouse, whether you had a dependant, and — if you’re partnered — who is claiming whose share of the rebate. Code F is separate: it’s for people covered as a dependant on someone else’s policy.

The Six Codes at a Glance

Codes are grouped by household type. Singles use A or B. Couples use C, D, or E depending on how they split the rebate. F is for dependants covered on someone else’s policy.¹

Code A: single, no dependants.
Code B: single, with a dependent person.
Code C: married or de facto, claiming your own share of the rebate.
Code D: entered against your spouse’s policy line when you are claiming their share on your return.
Code E: married or de facto, but your spouse is claiming your share on their return.
Code F: you are covered as a dependent person on someone else’s policy.

If You Were Single on 30 June

You use Code A or Code B, and the difference is whether you had a dependant.

Code A applies when you are single with no dependants. Your rebate is assessed against the single income thresholds.²

Code B applies when you are single but have a dependent person, such as a child or a sibling you support financially, or when you pay for a dependent-person-only policy. Single parents with a dependent child should choose Code B, because it sends the ATO to the family income thresholds instead of the lower single ones — a meaningful difference at higher incomes.²

The ATO’s definition of a dependent child covers your child who is under 21, or aged 21 to 24 and studying full-time at a school, college, or university. The child must be an Australian resident, and you must contribute to their upkeep.³

If You Had a Spouse on 30 June

Couples use C, D, or E, and the choice reflects a decision the two of you need to make together: who claims whose share of the rebate. Get this wrong and you can either double-claim or miss out entirely.

Code C is for a married or de facto taxpayer claiming their own share. Use it also if you are a parent claiming for a dependent-person-only policy. If you are claiming your spouse’s share on your own return as well, you enter Code C for your policy line and Code D for your spouse’s line. The number of Code D rows must match the number of Code C rows for the same health insurer ID and membership number.²

Code E is the mirror image of that arrangement. You use it when your spouse is claiming your share on their return. You still enter your policy details, but Code E tells the ATO that the rebate calculation for your line sits on your partner’s return.²

The two ways couples typically arrange it:

Each spouse claims their own share. Both returns use Code C, and there are no Code D entries.
One spouse claims both shares. That spouse uses Code C for their line and Code D for the partner’s line. The partner uses Code E on their return.

If You’re a Dependant on Someone Else’s Policy

Code F is for people covered as a dependent person on another person’s private health insurance. In practice this most often applies to adult children still on a parent’s policy, but the code applies regardless of age.²

You are not entitled to a rebate yourself under Code F, because you’re not the one paying for the policy. What the code does do is tell the ATO you hold appropriate hospital cover, which can exempt you from the Medicare Levy Surcharge. Leaving the code blank when you’re actually a dependant on a policy can mean the ATO treats you as uninsured and applies the surcharge.

Picking Your Code When the Year Wasn’t Simple

Your code is set by your situation on 30 June, not by what changed during the year. If you married in May, you use a couple’s code. If you separated on 29 June, you use a single’s code. The snapshot date is what counts.

Multiple policy lines on your statement don’t change your tax claim code. Your Private Health Insurance statement often has several rows because the government rebate percentage adjusts on 1 April each year, or because the oldest person on the policy passed 65 or 70 during the year and the benefit code shifted.¹ The same tax claim code applies to every row for the same policy — you don’t switch codes between lines.

One point of confusion worth flagging: the benefit code on your statement is not the tax claim code. Benefit codes are two-digit numbers (30, 31, 35, 36, 40, 41) set by your insurer based on age and the period the premiums were paid. Tax claim codes are the letters A through F you choose based on your family circumstances.¹

Where the Code Goes on Your Return

In myTax, private health insurance details are usually pre-filled from the data your insurer reports to the ATO. On the Prepare return screen, select Add/Edit at the Medicare and private health insurance banner, then work through the Private health insurance section. Each statement line needs its own entry — don’t combine them. Look for a “Record complete” indicator on each line; if it’s missing, you’ll need to select the tax claim code and complete any empty fields yourself.⁴

On a paper return, private health insurance sits under the M2 Medicare levy questions. You copy across the health insurer ID, membership number, benefit code, premiums eligible for the rebate, and rebate received from each row of your PHI statement, and write your tax claim code in the Tax claim code box on each row.²

If you changed funds mid-year, only one insurer’s data may pre-fill. You are responsible for adding the second fund’s rows manually.

What Goes Wrong When the Code Is Wrong

The most common error is choosing a code that doesn’t match your family situation. A married taxpayer who picks Code A instead of Code C or E has their rebate assessed against the single income thresholds, which can produce the wrong offset. Couples who both use Code C without agreeing who claims what can effectively double-claim, and the ATO will correct it.

The rebate itself has income tiers. For 2025–26 the base tier runs to $101,000 for singles and $202,000 for families, with reduced rebates in higher tiers and none above $158,000 single or $316,000 family. Family thresholds rise by $1,500 for each dependent child after the first.⁵ Whether you’re measured against the single or family thresholds is driven by your tax claim code, which is why a single parent using Code A instead of Code B can lose real money.

The Medicare Levy Surcharge uses the same income tiers as the rebate and applies when you earn above the base tier without appropriate hospital cover: 1% at Tier 1, 1.25% at Tier 2, and 1.5% at Tier 3.⁶ If your code fails to signal that you (or the policy you’re a dependant on) provided cover, the surcharge can be applied automatically.

Penalties for false or misleading statements are calculated on the resulting shortfall: 25% of the shortfall for failing to take reasonable care, 50% for recklessness, and 75% for intentional disregard. Where no shortfall results, penalty units apply instead — 20, 40, or 60 units at the same three levels of culpability. Each Commonwealth penalty unit is currently $330.⁷⁸

If you spot an error after lodging, amend the return through myTax or by contacting the ATO before penalties are considered — most miscoded returns are simple fixes when caught early.

1
Australian Taxation Office. Your Private Health Insurance Statement
2
Australian Taxation Office. Private Health Insurance Policy Details 2025
3
Australian Taxation Office. IT8 Number of Dependent Children 2025
4
Australian Taxation Office. myTax 2025 Private Health Insurance
5
Australian Taxation Office. Income Thresholds and Rates for the Private Health Insurance Rebate
6
Australian Taxation Office. Paying the Medicare Levy Surcharge
7
Australian Taxation Office. Penalties for Making False or Misleading Statements
8
Australian Taxation Office. Penalty Units