GLOSSARY
Country of birth
Country of birth has been classified according to the Standard Australian Classification of Countries (SACC), Second Edition, 2008 (cat. no. 1269.0).
Decile
A grouping derived by ranking all units in the population in ascending order according to some continuous variable, such as their income, and dividing the ranked population into ten equal groups, each comprising 10% of the population.
Employee
A persons who works for a public or private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary, a retainer fee from their employer while working on a commission basis, type, piece-rates or payment in kind; or a person who operates his or her own unincorporated business with or without hiring employees.
Employee income
A person's total remuneration, whether monetary or in kind, received in return for labour from an employer or from a person's own unincorporated business. It comprises wages and salaries, bonuses, amounts salary sacrificed, non-cash benefits such as the use of motor vehicles and subsidised housing, and termination payments. Employee income usually includes all employer social contributions. However, many components of this income are not reported on the Personal Income Tax (PIT) dataset and hence are not included in this publication.
Employers' social contributions
Payments by employers to social insurance schemes for the benefit of their employees. Includes employers' contributions to workers' compensation insurance, severance, termination and redundancy payments, superannuation schemes and the provision of subsidised social infrastructure such as employer owned social centres, medical facilities, etc.
Family visa stream
Includes partner, child, parent and other relative visas.
Foreign income
Income from foreign sources include the following data items on the individual income taxation return:
- Q20-T Other net foreign employment source income;
- Q20-R Net foreign rent;
- Q19-K Controlled foreign company income;
- Q20-LD Net foreign pension/annuity income; and
- Q20-M Other net foreign source income.
Government pensions and allowances
Income support payments from government to persons under social security and related government programs. This includes pensions and allowances received by aged, disabled, unemployed and sick persons, their families and children, veterans or their survivors, and study allowances for students. Also includes overseas pensions and benefits, although some may not be paid by overseas governments. One-off payments to support current consumption are also included, such as carer's lump sum payments, Baby Bonus (formerly known as Maternity Payment) and Child Disability Assistance Payment paid to recipients of Carer Allowance.
Gross income
See Total income.
Humanitarian visa stream
Includes Special Humanitarian and Refugee visas.
Industry
From 2006, industry is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC), 2006 (Revision 2.0) (cat. no. 1292.0).
Investment income
Receipts that arise from the ownership of assets that are provided to others for their use. In includes returns from financial and non-financial assets and royalties.
Job
A job is determined by an Individual Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) record linked to an Australian Business Number (ABN) record.
Main applicant
The 'main applicant' is generally the person whose skills or proposed activities in Australia are assessed by the Department of Immigration and Border Protection (DIBP) as part of their visa application. They will usually have been specifically identified on the application form as the 'main applicant'.
Negative income
The loss incurred from rental property, the purchase of shares or units in public unit trusts, or by an unincorporated business, where the total of interest paid, other operating expenses and depreciation exceed the gross receipts. Excludes capital losses incurred from the sale of assets.
Occupation
From 2006, occupation is classified according to the Australian and New Zealand Standard Classification of Occupations (ANZSCO), First Edition, 2006 (cat. no. 1220.0).
Offshore applicant
A person who applies for a permanent visa offshore (outside Australia) to stay permanently in Australia. They are granted a permanent entry visa and given a grant (approval) number. This information, along with their date of grant and visa evidence number, are added to their Settlement Database (SDB) record however they do not have an SDB arrival date until arrival in Australia.
Onshore applicant
A person who applies for a permanent resident visa onshore (in Australia) to remain in Australia. The arrival date listed on the SDB is the date of their last entry into Australia.
Other Income
Other income (excluding Government pensions and allowances) includes transfer or trust income; foreign investment fund and/or foreign life insurance assurance policy income (in 2009-10 only); controlled foreign company income; foreign salary/pension income; other net foreign source income; and other (including superannuation and annuity income). Data for superannuation and annuities are understated. See Explanatory Notes for more information.
Permanent migrant
A person who was born overseas who has permanent Australian resident status.
Permanent Other visa stream
Includes all other permanent visas not included in the Skilled, Family and Humanitarian visa streams.
Permanent visa
The permission or authority granted by Australia for foreign nationals to live in Australia permanently.
Provisional visa stream
Provisional migrants include those who have recently completed study in an Australian educational institution on a temporary visa and are intending to transition to a permanent visa. Also referred to as a "pathway" visa.
Rental income
Profit or loss from rental properties after expenses such as interest, land rates, insurance and repairs and maintenance costs are deducted.
Reportable employee superannuation contributions
In this publication, reportable employer superannuation contributions include those for both employees and unincorporated business owners. The proportion of people reporting as unincorporated business owners is considered to be sufficiently small for the gross amount to be included as employee income.
Reportable fringe benefits (gross value not adjusted)
Reportable fringe benefits (gross value not adjusted) have been included in total employee income. Where the value of benefits provided by an employer exceeds $,2000 in the Fringe Benefits Tax (FBT) reference year (e.g. April 2009 to March 2010), then that value much be reported as the gross taxable value of those benefits on the recipient's payment summary for the similar income year (e.g. 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010). Fringe benefits below $2,000 are not reportable. This item includes both salary sacrificed and 'in-kind' (goods and services) payments. It is not possible to separately identify salary sacrificed amounts from this payment.
Secondary applicant
A person whose visa was granted on the basis of being a family member (e.g. spouse, dependent child) of a person who qualified for a visa. They will have been identified on the visa application as an 'other' or secondary applicant with the person who met the visa criteria being specifically identified on the visa application as the 'main applicant'.
Skilled visa stream
Skilled migrants are selected on the basis of their age, skills and ability to quickly make a contribution to the Australian economy. Includes Independent, Australian sponsored, Employer/State sponsored and Business skills visas.
Self-employment income
The profit or loss that accrues to owners of, or partners in, their own unincorporated business(es). The profit or loss is the value of the gross output of the enterprise (including the estimated value of goods and services produced for barter as well as goods produced for own consumption) less the deduction of operating expenses. It includes profits from capital investments of partners who do not work in these enterprises, i.e. silent partners.
Taxable income
For an individual, the taxable income is the amount remaining after deducting from assessable income all deductions allowed under the Income Tax Assessment Act for that year and is the amount to which tax rates are applied.
Total income
Income from all sources, whether monetary or in kind, before income tax and the Medicare levy are deducted.
Unincorporated business
A business enterprise that does not possess a separate legal identify from its owners, who thus bear full liability for any action or inaction of the business.
Unincorporated business income
See Self-employment income.
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