ID-100103395Are you an Australian resident for tax purposes?

Generally, ATO will consider you to be an Australian resident for tax purposes if you:

  • have always lived in Australia or have come to Australia to live
  • have been in Australia for more than half of the income year (unless your usual home is overseas and you don’t intend to live in Australia – for example, you are a working holidaymaker), or
  • are an overseas student enrolled in a course of study of more than six months duration.

Working holidaymakers

You are a working holidaymaker if you are a tourist who intends to work and travel in Australia temporarily. You are not an Australian resident for tax purposes if one of the following applies:

  • you are visiting Australia for more than six months and for most of that time you are travelling and working in various locations around Australia
  • you are holidaying in Australia
  • you are visiting for less than six months.

As a working holidaymaker who is a foreign resident for tax purposes, you:

  • pay tax on every dollar of income you earn in Australia – this tax is taken out by your employer before you receive your wages – see Individual income tax rates
  • generally don’t pay tax on income you earn overseas (for example, in your home country)
  • don’t pay the Medicare levy.
  • foreign resident rates

Work out your tax residency

To understand your tax situation, you must first work out whether you are an Australian or foreign resident for tax purposes.
The tests ATO will use to work out your residency status for tax purposes are not the same as those used by other Australian agencies for other purposes such as immigration. You may be an Australian resident for the purposes of income tax, whether or not you are an Australian citizen and whether or not you are a permanent resident for immigration purposes.

Start the Determination of residency tool.