Tax
Four tests decide your tax residency. Three never count your days.
Australian tax residency is decided by four separate tests, and three of them are judgement calls. The 183 day rule is only one of them, yet it is the one everybody quotes. Get the answer wrong and the bill can arrive years later, for every year at once. This calculator runs all four tests on your own facts and shows what each answer would cost you.
The 183 day rule is only one of four tests. The other three never count your days.
Australian tax residency is defined in section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. It turns on four tests: the resides test, the domicile and permanent place of abode test, the 183 day test, and the Commonwealth superannuation test. Meet any one of them and you are a resident. Spending fewer than 183 days here only means you have not met that one test. The other three can still make you a resident, which is why the rule quoted on every expat forum can make you a resident but can never, on its own, make you a non-resident.
A simpler replacement (a bright-line test with a 45 day factor test) was announced in 2021 and has never become law. Until it does, three of the four tests are judgement calls about domicile, intention, family and where you actually live. And Australia runs on self-assessment: you take a position, and it is checked later, or never.
On the day your residency ends, everything you own that is not Australian real property is treated as sold at market value under CGT event I1, and the gain is taxed. No sale, no cash, and it has been law since 1997.
It catches people who have never heard of it.
What the tax residency calculator works out
The free check shows which tests your facts meet, a resides test score out of 100, every outcome your facts could lead to, and roughly what rides on the answer. The full report prices each outcome to the dollar.
- All four tests, one at a time. Which one is doing the work, and how close the answer is. A position that turns on one fact is a different risk from one that does not.
- The judgement calls scored one factor at a time, with our weighting published, instead of a verdict with no working.
- Every outcome priced on the same income. Worldwide income at resident rates with the $18,200 threshold and the 2% Medicare levy, against Australian sourced income at the foreign resident rate of 30% from the first dollar, with no threshold and no levy.
- The year you leave or arrive. A part-year threshold of $13,464 plus $394.67 a month, which is what actually applies in a moving year.
- Withholding and capital gains as a non-resident. 10% on interest, 30% on unfranked dividends, foreign resident capital gains withholding at 15% on property, and a smaller CGT discount for the years you own an asset as a foreign resident.
What the full report adds
- Your Australian tax under every outcome, to the dollar, ranked on one stated measure, with the two or three facts carrying your position and what would move them.
- Leaving with shares, funds or crypto? The exit tax, priced both ways. CGT event I1 paid on departure, against the section 104-165 choice to defer it. It is a real election with real consequences.
- What a day and a month are worth. Your bill re-run at every day count and every month of the move, so you can see where the lines fall on your own facts.
- Run it again, as often as you like. Residency is decided one income year at a time, so the report is built to be re-run with next year's facts, or a different departure month.
What it will not do
It does not give tax advice and it does not decide your residency. Nothing can, short of a private ruling or a court. Three of the four tests are judgement, so the report shows which way each factor points and how heavily, rather than pretending to a certainty it does not have. It ranks outcomes on arithmetic and does not recommend one. Where several years are already open, or the position is finely balanced, an international tax adviser can give you advice personal to you, typically for $2,000 to $5,000 for a written opinion. This report costs a fraction of that, and it is the document to hand them if you go.
We never ask for your tax file number. Everything here runs on the rates for 2026-27, effective 1 July 2026, the 2026-27 income year.
What people ask before they run it
Am I still an Australian tax resident if I live overseas?
You might be. Living overseas does not settle it on its own. There are four tests, and meeting any one of them is enough: the resides test, the domicile and permanent place of abode test, the 183 day test, and the Commonwealth superannuation test. This calculator applies all four to your own facts and shows you which one decides your case.
What are the 4 tax residency tests in Australia?
The four tests are the resides test, the domicile test, the 183 day test and the Commonwealth superannuation test, all in section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936. Passing any one makes you a resident. The resides test looks at how you actually live. The domicile test asks if you have set up a permanent home overseas. The super test covers members of the CSS and PSS Commonwealth schemes.
Does spending less than 183 days in Australia make me a non-resident?
No. It settles the 183 day test and nothing else. The resides test and the domicile test do not count days at all, which is how somebody who spent three weeks in the country can still be taxed on their worldwide income. It is the most expensive misunderstanding on this subject.
What is the tax difference between a resident and a foreign resident?
A resident is taxed on income from everywhere, keeps the $18,200 tax-free threshold and pays the 2% Medicare levy. A foreign resident is taxed only on Australian sourced income, at 30% from the first dollar with no threshold at all, and pays no Medicare levy. On a large foreign salary the difference runs into six figures a year.
Do I lose the tax-free threshold in the year I arrive or leave?
You lose part of it. In a year you are a resident for only some months, the threshold is $13,464 plus about $394.67 for each month you were a resident, and a part month counts as a whole month. Only a full year resident gets the whole $18,200. A foreign resident gets no threshold at all. The report works it out on your own dates.
Is there really a tax on leaving Australia?
Yes. CGT event I1 treats everything that is not taxable Australian property, such as shares, managed funds, cryptocurrency and overseas property, as sold at market value on the day residency ends, and taxes the gain, with no sale and no cash. You can defer instead and pay on the eventual sale, but the 50% discount is not available for growth after 8 May 2012 once you are a foreign resident, so deferring often costs more. The report prices both.
What happens if I sell my Australian house as a non-resident?
You generally lose the main residence exemption in full if you are a foreign resident on the day the contract is signed. It is not split for the years you lived there. The buyer must also withhold 15% of the price at settlement, with no minimum property value since 1 January 2025. On a family home held for a long time, that one date is usually the biggest figure in this whole subject.
Can I be a tax resident of two countries at the same time?
Yes. Each country applies its own rules, so both can claim you in the same year. Where Australia has a tax treaty with the other country, tie-breaker rules in the treaty decide which one wins. Australia has treaties with more than 40 jurisdictions, but not with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia or Hong Kong. Division 770 also gives an offset for tax already paid overseas. Neither applies automatically.
Do non-residents pay the Medicare levy?
No. A foreign resident pays no Medicare levy and no Medicare levy surcharge. A resident pays the 2% levy. In the year you arrive or leave, you pay it only for the part of the year you were a resident and claim an exemption for the rest. A resident who is not entitled to Medicare, as many temporary visa holders are not, can apply for an exemption certificate.
How do I prove I am not an Australian tax resident?
You prove it with records, not a form. The key ones are your movement records from the Department of Home Affairs, a lease or title overseas in your own name, utility accounts, a local bank account, school enrolments and your work contract. They are easy to collect when you move and hard to find years later. The report lists what the Australian Taxation Office asks for, item by item.
What happened to the new 45 day residency test?
It has never become law. It was announced in the 2021-22 Federal Budget after a Board of Taxation review, and there is still no start date. Until it is law, the four tests in the 1936 Act and the court decisions on them apply. Nothing in this calculator is worked out on the 45 day test, and the report shows where you would sit under it only with a label saying it is not law.
Is this tax advice?
No. This is an information service. It applies the published tests and rates to the facts you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks outcomes on one stated arithmetic measure and does not recommend one. It will never tell you what your residency is. That is a question of fact for the Commissioner of Taxation, settled with certainty only by a private ruling or by a court.
Everything on Resident or Not
Your estimate is free, and it is a real answer.
Applies the four Australian tax residency tests in section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 - the resides test, the domicile and permanent place of abode test, the 183 day test and the Commonwealth superannuation test - to one person's own facts, then prices every outcome those facts could produce: worldwide income against Australian sourced income, the tax-free threshold in full, apportioned or lost, the Medicare levy, the temporary resident exemption, and the capital gains tax that falls due on the day residency ends.
Start the Resident or Not calculator
