Free, and nothing changes on this page. Your estimate now, then three short follow-ups over the next week, and we stop. Unsubscribe in one click.
Everything is unlocked. Change one date, one day count or one figure and run it again as often as you like. Nothing is deducted, nothing counts down, and none of it expires.
Working overseas, or new to Australia? Nobody checks your residency until they disagree with it
You took a job overseas, or you moved here for one. Now someone at work says you "might not be a resident any more". Nobody at the airport told you. The tax office won't tell you either, until it reads your facts the other way. And it is rarely just one year. Every year you lodged the same way can be reopened together, with interest on each one.
There are four separate tests. Pass any one and Australia taxes your worldwide income. Three of them never count your days. Check all four against your own facts in about three minutes, and see what each answer would cost you.
A rough guide from two answers. The full check also asks about your domicile, your home, your family and your visa. That is where three of the four tests are really decided.
Sound familiar?
The rules come from a law written in 1936. Three of its four tests are judgement calls, not numbers. A simpler test based on day counts was announced in 2021 and has never become law. So Australia asks you to decide, then decides later whether it agrees.
That is often how residency gets decided: one box on one tax return, picked in a hurry, then copied every year because changing it feels like admitting a mistake. Nobody ever checked it against the four tests.
It sits next to domicile, taxable Australian property, CGT event I1, Subdivision 768-R and the tie-breaker in Article 4. Each one is a real rule with real money attached, written in words nobody outside a tax office uses.
Expat forums treat the 183 day rule as if it were the whole test. Spending 183 days here can make you a resident. Spending fewer days does not make you a foreign resident, because the other three tests never look at a calendar.
On the day your residency ends, everything that is not Australian real property is treated as sold at market value, and the gain is taxed. You sold nothing and got no cash. It catches people who have never heard of it, and it has been law since 1997.
You enter your facts. We check all four tests one by one, show which one decides your case, score the judgement calls one factor at a time and publish how we weight them. Then we price every outcome your facts could lead to. No appointment, no sales call, and we never ask for your tax file number.
Eight short steps. About three minutes. You will know which test decides your case, and it costs nothing.
What getting it wrong costs
Similar pay, the same income year, and both lodged as foreign residents. The gap is not the tax rate and it is not the country. It comes down to four questions about where they really live, and only one of them was ever asked those questions. Both are on three year arrangements, so the big figure below is Mark's tax, three times over.
Mark and Priya are made up, and we say so. The maths is not: both figures come from the same engine that runs your own report, on the - rates, and both appear as worked examples on the scenarios page, where you can read every input behind them.
What you can control
That split is the whole subject, and it is why three minutes is worth it. The four tests look at facts. Some facts are fixed. Some are only as strong as the proof behind them. And a few are real choices worth five or six figures on their own. The report sorts your facts into those three groups, using your own numbers.
A residency case is rarely close on every point at once. It usually turns on two: a house you kept, a family that stayed, a plan nobody wrote down. The report scores each factor in TR 2023/1 (the ATO's ruling on residency) separately and shows which ones carry the weight, because those are the only ones where anything can change. All $360,810 of Mark's rests on two of them. What the resides test weighs.
Most of these cases are not lost on the law. They are lost years later, on a lease nobody kept, a school enrolment nobody printed, a removalist invoice long gone. The usual process is to gather the record at the move, not after a question is asked, and the report lists what the Australian Taxation Office asks for, item by item. It costs nothing but an afternoon. The evidence checklist.
The 183 day test is one of four, and the other three do not count days at all. So more days is not automatically worse, and fewer days is not automatically safe. The report prices every day count from none to the whole year on your own figures, so the number stops being a guess and becomes something you know. What 183 days does and does not do.
Leaving triggers CGT event I1, so tax falls due on gains you never actually received. Section 104-165(3) lets an individual set that aside and pay when the asset is really sold instead. One of the two is cheaper, the difference can run to five figures, and it is a real choice, not a reading of the facts. The report works out both. How the choice works.
If you are a foreign resident on the day the contract is signed, you generally lose the main residence exemption completely. It goes back to the day the home was bought, and it is not split for the years you lived in it. On a family home held for a long time, that one date is usually the biggest figure in this whole subject. The report prices it on both sides of the line. What the 2019 change did.
When two countries both claim you, a tax treaty has tie-breaker rules that settle it, and Division 770 gives an offset for tax already paid overseas. Neither happens automatically. Both have to be claimed, in a return, on the right basis. The report names the treaty for your country and the article that applies. How the tie-breakers run.
None of this is advice about your own affairs, and we are not a registered tax agent. The report gives you the maths on your own facts, with every line shown. That makes a talk with an agent short, or shows you plainly that you do not need one. What we are, and what we are not.
Your options
| Guess What most people do |
A tax adviser A written residency opinion |
Resident or Not This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | Nothing now, amended tax bills later |
$2,000 to $5,000 | $19 |
| How long it takes | An afternoon on expat forums | Usually two to four weeks | About 3 minutes |
| Run it again for free when your facts change | No, a new fee each time | Yes | |
| Every outcome priced in dollars | |||
| Advice personal to you | |||
| Shows the working |
An adviser can give you advice personal to you, and this report cannot. But it gives you the same four tests and every outcome priced for a fraction of the fee. If you do go on to an adviser, it is the document to hand them: your facts, each test applied, and the maths.
Key dates
Residency is not a status you keep. It is decided one income year at a time, and the dates that split those years do not move. Miss one and the answer is made for you, at a price nobody chose.
Everything is worked out from 1 July to 30 June and split by month. Days either side of that line fall into different years, and the tax-free threshold is - only for somebody who was a resident for all twelve months. How the part-year threshold works.
This is CGT event I1. Shares, funds, cryptocurrency and overseas property are valued at market price on the day your residency ends, and the gain is taxed, with no sale and no cash. Australian real property is not caught. What CGT event I1 does.
A foreign resident pays - from the first dollar and reaches - at the same point a resident does. Those brackets and the Medicare thresholds reset on 1 July, and a calculation on last year's rates is not slightly off. It is off on every line. These figures are for the - year.
What you get
The free estimate shows which way your facts lean and roughly what is at stake. The full report checks all four tests one at a time, prices every outcome to the dollar, and shows what would move you from one outcome to the next. Every section and chart is built from your own facts, with the working shown so you can check it or challenge it.
See a full sample, free. A made-up person run all the way through, with the open half exactly as a customer sees it, and the assistant live on it for two questions.
How it works
If you roughly know how many days you spent in Australia, you can do this. Simple mode is eight short steps. Advanced mode adds your investment income split, the foreign tax you have already paid, and private hospital cover.
Days in Australia, the months you were based here, where you really live, who still lives here, your visa, your income and what you own. We never ask for your name, your tax file number, your Medicare number or a bank account. Nothing you would not say out loud to a workmate.
All four tests applied to your own facts, the resides test scored out of 100, every outcome named, and how far apart they are as a range. That free half is yours whether you buy anything or not.
$19 opens the full report: every outcome priced to the dollar and ranked, the factor by factor working, your exit capital gains bill both ways, and the documents your position rests on. PDF included, ready to hand to a tax agent.
Section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, Schedule 7 to the Income Tax Rates Act 1986, and Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1. Every figure in the report says where it came from.
The resides test has no formula, so we set ours out in the report, factor by factor, and you can disagree with it. Passing off a score as if a court had produced it would be the most misleading thing we could do.
We are not licensed to tell you what your residency is or what to do about it. Residency is a question of fact for the Commissioner of Taxation. What most people are missing is the maths and a list of the facts that matter.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Included with the report
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report: your facts, your four test results and your figures. It answers questions about it in plain English. It is not a search box and not a help page. It knows what your report says because it has been given it.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures.
Pricing
One payment, no expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It opens the whole report and lets you rerun the numbers as often as you like. That matters, because residency is decided one income year at a time and most people have more than one year to check.
Prices in Australian dollars. Paid securely through PayPal: card or PayPal balance, no account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
Your questions answered
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A residency position is not a one-off. It goes on this year's return, and next year's, and the one after. If it is ever reopened, it is reopened for all of those years at once, with interest. The papers that would settle it are easy to get today and hard to find in five years. Three minutes now is the cheapest three minutes in the whole process.
No card. No sign up. No tax file number. Your answer on the next screen.
Four tests. Your facts already answer every one of them. See how, and what it costs, in three minutes.
Most pages just explain the residency tests. This one applies all four to your own facts and prices what each answer costs you: worldwide income against Australian sourced income, the tax-free threshold you keep or lose, and the capital gains tax that falls due the day you leave.
Figures as at -.
Your free result
The outcomes your facts could produce, priced on your own figures.
The email you want to log in with. It can be different from your PayPal one.
And you can ask it questions. Your report comes with an optional assistant that has read it and explains any figure or any test in plain English. It is given the facts and figures on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
One email with your estimate in it, and a link that reopens everything you entered (the days, the domicile question, the home, the income), so you do not have to type it again before 30 June.
Your estimate now, then three short follow-ups over the next week, and we stop. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Before this income year closes
Your residency answer does not sit on one return. It goes on this year's, then next year's, and if it is ever reopened, every one of those years can be reopened together. The full report puts the arithmetic, and the facts it rests on, in front of you first.
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never a Medicare number, tax file number or bank detail. We do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
No. You pay once and the access is yours. There is no subscription and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never even see your card number.
It shows which of the four tests your facts engage, how each one comes out on them, and what every possible outcome costs in Australian tax. It will not announce a conclusion. Residency is a question of fact for the Commissioner of Taxation, on the whole of your circumstances. Where your facts are finely balanced, the report says so plainly, rather than picking a side and sounding certain.
The one thing that settles it with certainty is a private ruling from the tax office, which binds the Commissioner. Advisers usually charge $2,000 to $5,000 for a written residency opinion, and more to prepare a ruling application. This report sets out your facts, the four tests and the maths, so any of those starts from a finished page.
Resident or Not provides information, not financial product advice. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice and we never tell you which option to pick. What we do is apply the published tests and rates to the facts you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your real position is a question of fact determined by the Commissioner of Taxation on the whole of your circumstances, and settled with certainty only by a private ruling or by a court. The weighting behind the resides test score on your report is ours, not the law's, and it is published in the report so that you can disagree with it.
Pay once and the full report opens on the facts you already entered: all four tests applied, every outcome priced, and the PDF ready to download.
The email you want to log in with. It can be different from your PayPal one.
Worked examples
Australians who left, people who arrived, and people living between two countries. Every figure on this page is worked out by the same engine that runs a paying customer's report, on the current rates, from the facts written down in each card. The people are invented. The figures are not: none of them is typed in, which is why they cannot quietly go stale.
The resides test, the domicile and permanent place of abode test, the 183 day test, and the Commonwealth superannuation test. They do not vote and they do not average out. Three can point away from Australia and the fourth still makes you a resident on your worldwide income.
Only the 183 day test counts days. So being under 183 days settles that test and nothing else. That is how somebody who spent three weeks in the country can still be assessed on everything they earn, everywhere.
It is a conclusion the facts produce, one income year at a time. So the figure on each card below is not "the cheapest outcome against the dearest". It is the gap between what that person assumed and what their own facts actually produce.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for eleven different people. Worked out on the current rates.
Your own answer turns on your days, your domicile, whether there is a settled home somewhere else, who is still in Australia, your visa and what you own that you have not sold. Change any one of those and the tests come out differently.
Every residency position these facts could support, and what each one costs for the 2026-27 income year, with any capital gains tax the move triggers. Same person, same facts. The difference is only in which position the facts are found to support. Open Show Details on any of them for what it means in plain English, what the law says, and the general process behind it. These panels are live on this page.
How much tax rides on Daniel's residency, where his facts point, and what is still open, on the 2026-27 rates.
| Where the figure comes from | Amount | What decides it |
|---|---|---|
| Income tax and the Medicare levy, year by year The gap between the cheapest and dearest outcome: $81,354 in the year he leaves, then $100,970 in each of the 4 full years after it | $485,234 | His facts, and the records that prove them |
| His choice on the exit tax Paying capital gains tax on his shares when he leaves (CGT event I1), or putting it off under section 104-165(3). A one-off | $13,193 | His choice, priced both ways in “Capital gains tax on the way out” |
| Riding on his residency in total | $498,427 |
This is not a bill. Every line above is the gap between two outcomes that are both possible on his facts. The first depends on where his facts point and the records behind them; the other is a decision, and the report prices both sides of it.
Read the next section first. The cheapest outcome is often not the one that applies. Nobody chooses their residency. The facts decide it, so the report works out where they point first, and prices every outcome second.
Section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 makes you a resident if any one of these is met. They do not vote and they do not average out.
| Test | Score | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| The resides testSection 6(1) ITAA 1936, applied through Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1 | 44 | Genuinely arguable |
| The domicile and permanent place of abode testSection 6(1) ITAA 1936 and the Domicile Act 1982; TR 2023/1; Harding v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] FCAFC 29 | 0 | Not met |
| The 183 day testSection 6(1)(a)(ii) ITAA 1936 | 30 | Not met |
| The Commonwealth superannuation testSection 6(1)(a)(iii) ITAA 1936; Superannuation Act 1976 and Superannuation Act 1990 | 0 | Not met |
The resides test. These facts sit in the middle. No single factor decides the resides test, and a position in this band is one the Commissioner could reasonably take either way.
The domicile and permanent place of abode test. Daniel's domicile is Australian, and on these facts he has established a permanent place of abode outside Australia, so this test is not met. It is the test the Commissioner argues about most often.
The 183 day test. He was here for 55 days, which is under 183. This test is not met, and that is all it means. Being under 183 days does not make anybody a foreign resident.
The primary test has no rule in it. These are the considerations Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1 lists, scored on Daniel's own facts, and they come to 44 out of 100.
| Factor | Weight | Score | Contributes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time physically in Australia55 days in Australia this income year | 25% | 26 | 7 |
| Intention and purpose of being awaya 60 month arrangement, with return unsure | 15% | 20 | 3 |
| Familya spouse and children remaining in Australia | 20% | 95 | 19 |
| Business and employment tiesemployed by an overseas entity | 15% | 10 | 2 |
| Assets and where they arethe Australian home kept available | 10% | 90 | 9 |
| Social and living arrangementsa settled home overseas | 15% | 30 | 5 |
The weighting is ours, not the law's. No court scores these factors arithmetically and neither does the Commissioner. TR 2023/1 lists them and expressly declines to rank any of them. It is published here so it can be disagreed with. What it is for is showing which facts are carrying the answer, because those are the ones evidence can move.
Two facts are doing almost all the work for Daniel: a spouse and children still in Australia, and a house he can walk back into. Together they are 28 of his 44 points. Everything else about his life is in Dubai.
Ranked on one measure and one only: total Australian tax for the 2026-27 income year, plus the capital gains tax on the assets treated as sold when residency changes, whenever it falls due. The top row costs the least. It is not a menu.
| # | Outcome | Threshold | Income tax | Levy | Total | Behind the leader |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Foreign resident from the day you leave, exit capital gains tax paid | $15,043 | $84,844 | $2,853 | $87,696 | - |
| 2 | Foreign resident from the day you leave, deferral choice made | $15,043 | $18,994 | $622 | $100,889 | +$13,193 |
| 3 | Australian resident for the whole yearWhere Daniel's facts point | $18,200 | $91,870 | $9,100 | $100,970 | +$13,274 |
The second row is not a mistake. Its income tax is by far the smallest of the three ($18,994), because the section 104-165 choice takes the exit capital gains tax to nil this year. What it hands to a later year is $81,273 rather than the $68,081 payable now, because the eventual sale happens while Daniel is a foreign resident and his 50% discount is cut to 30.8%: eight years of the thirteen year ownership period spent as a resident, apportioned under section 115-115.
Deferring is not free, and it is not the catastrophe a flat "no discount for foreign residents" would make it either. It costs Daniel about $13,200 more, and that gap widens every year he holds on. Which is exactly why the measure runs past 30 June rather than stopping at it.
Income tax, the Medicare levy, the surcharge, withholding at the source and deferred capital gains tax are five different things that move for five different reasons.
Daniel's Medicare levy is $5,600 for a full year of residency and $1,756 for four months of it. He holds no private hospital cover, so the surcharge adds $3,500 on the resident outcome, at the family thresholds, because he has a spouse, which is worth $250 against what a single person on the same income would pay. A foreign resident pays neither the levy nor the surcharge.
On Daniel's 4 months of residency it is $15,042.67: $13,464 plus a third of the $4,736 apportioned component, under section 20 of the Income Tax Rates Act 1986.
| Months a resident | Section 20, as it works | A straight pro-rata split |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $13,858.67 | $1,516.67 |
| 4 | $15,042.67 | $6,066.67 |
| 8 | $16,621.33 | $12,133.33 |
| 12 | $18,200.00 | $18,200.00 |
A part month counts as a whole month. Leaving on 2 October gives you the whole of October. That is the law being generous, and it is worth $394.67 for the sake of getting the date right.
The apportioned part is $4,736 spread over twelve months, so the monthly figure is $394.67 rounded, and twelve months lands back on exactly $18,200.
A foreign resident for the whole year gets none of it. That alone is worth about $5,460 a year before anything else is counted.
Everything above is real arithmetic on a fictional person. Run yours and this half opens on your own facts.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure or any test in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the facts and figures on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
That is somebody else's answer. Yours takes about three minutes and costs nothing.
The link may have been used already. If you still get emails, contact us and we will stop them.
Free guides
Written for somebody who has just been told they "might have a residency problem" and has never read a section of the Income Tax Assessment Act. Plain English, this year's rates, the authority named for every rule, and all the working shown. Including the parts the official page leaves as a sentence with three links in it.
Reading helps. Seeing which of the four tests decides your own position helps more.
The four tests
A contributing member of the CSS or the PSS is an Australian tax resident for the whole income year, wherever they live and however few days they spend here. So is their spouse, and so is any child of theirs under 16. It is the shortest limb of the definition and the only one nothing gets past.
The third limb of the residency definition treats as a resident any person who is an eligible employee for the purposes of the Superannuation Act 1976, or a member of the superannuation scheme established by deed under the Superannuation Act 1990 - together with the spouse of such a person and any of their children under 16.
In ordinary words: the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme and the Public Sector Superannuation Scheme. Both are older defined benefit schemes for Commonwealth employees. The CSS closed to new members in 1990 and the PSS in 2005, so the people caught by this test are, by definition, long-serving.
| Scheme | Caught by this test? |
|---|---|
| Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) | Yes - eligible employees under the 1976 Act |
| Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (PSS) | Yes - members under the 1990 Act |
| PSSap (the accumulation scheme that replaced the PSS) | No |
| Military schemes such as MSBS or ADF Super | No |
| State government schemes | No |
| Any ordinary industry or retail fund | No |
The distinction matters enormously and is easy to get wrong from memory. A Commonwealth public servant who joined after 2005 is in PSSap and this test does not reach them at all; one who joined in 1998 is in the PSS and it reaches them absolutely. If there is any doubt, the scheme is named on the annual statement.
The test turns on being an eligible employee or member, which in practice means an active, contributing membership. A preserved benefit sitting in a closed scheme after somebody has left Commonwealth employment is a different thing from continuing membership as an employee, and this is exactly the point on which somebody should get the scheme's own confirmation in writing rather than rely on an assumption either way.
It is worth establishing before a posting rather than after it, because the difference between the two answers is the whole of a residency position.
This is the part that surprises households. If one partner is a CSS or PSS member, the other partner is an Australian resident for tax purposes as well, and so is every child of theirs under 16 - for the whole income year, wherever the family is living.
So a spouse who takes a local job overseas, is paid by an overseas employer, has never worked for the Commonwealth and has no connection to any of this is nonetheless assessed by Australia on their worldwide income, because of their partner's superannuation scheme. Nothing in the resides test, the domicile test or the day count changes it.
Being a resident for the whole year means:
A foreign income tax offset is available for income tax actually paid to the other country, capped at the Australian tax the foreign income itself attracted. In a country with no personal income tax there is nothing to offset, and the whole Australian bill stands. What the two rate schedules look like side by side.
Sometimes, and not in the way people expect. Where the other country also treats you as a resident under its own law and a comprehensive treaty is in force, Article 4 decides which country you are a resident of for treaty purposes. If it picks the other country, Australia's taxing rights shrink to what the treaty leaves it.
What that does not do is stop you being an Australian resident under domestic law. You still lodge here, and the treaty position is claimed in the return rather than assumed. And where the posting is to a country with no comprehensive treaty - several of the largest destinations for Commonwealth postings included - there is no tie-breaker at all. How a tie-breaker works.
It has been in the definition since the Act was written, and the logic is straightforward: somebody whose retirement income is being funded by the Commonwealth while they serve it overseas is treated as remaining connected to Australia for tax. Whether that logic still holds for a scheme closed to new members two decades ago is a policy question, and it is not one the Act leaves any room to argue about.
The practical advice is dull and it is the whole of it: find out which scheme you are in before you accept a posting, and if it is the CSS or the PSS, plan the whole overseas arrangement on the basis that Australia will tax the household's worldwide income for every year of it.
We ask it directly, apply it before the other three tests, and price what a full year of Australian residency costs on your own income - including the foreign tax offset, if there is any foreign tax to offset.
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About us
Somebody takes a job overseas, or arrives here for one, and a question follows them around for years afterwards: are they still an Australian tax resident? The answer decides whether Australia taxes everything they earn anywhere or only what it sourced here, whether they keep a tax-free threshold or pay from the first dollar, and whether every share and every coin they own is treated as sold on the day they left. Across a few years of an overseas package it can be a six figure question. Australia asks each person to answer it themselves, and then decides, sometimes years later, whether it agrees.
None of the rules are secret. The definition is in section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936; the Commissioner's view of how to apply it is Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1, issued on 7 June 2023 to replace IT 2650 and TR 98/17; the rates are Schedule 7 to the Income Tax Rates Act 1986; the exit capital gains rule is section 104-160 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997; and the leading cases have names: Harding, Pike, Addy, Applegate. What is hard to get is those documents applied to your own facts and turned into a number. Three of the four tests have no rule in them at all, the statutory bright-line test announced in 2021 has never been legislated, and the one number everybody has heard of, 183 days, settles only one of the four.
Resident or Not does one thing: it applies those published tests to your facts and shows you, in full, what they produce. All four tests separately, the judgement one scored factor by factor with our weighting published so you can disagree with it, and every outcome your facts could produce priced on one stated measure and put in order. Every working is visible, so you can check it, argue with it, or hand it to somebody who can.
We do not tell you what your residency is. We are not licensed to, and it is not ours to decide: residency is a question of fact determined by the Commissioner of Taxation on the whole of your circumstances, and settled with certainty only by a private ruling or by a court. What most people are missing is not an opinion. It is the arithmetic, and a list of which facts actually matter. Here is what the evidence looks like if you decide to take it further.
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, tax file numbers, Medicare numbers, passport numbers or bank account numbers, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act - health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
Information you give us
Information collected automatically
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
What is not sent
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia - see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
We use the following, and nothing else:
You can clear or block these through your browser at any time. Clearing them will sign you out and reset your preferences; the site will otherwise work normally.
We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and - when you complete a purchase - the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, the Australian Taxation Office, employers, tax agents or any overseas revenue authority, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on, and you can adjust personalised advertising in your Google account settings.
Payments are processed by PayPal. Your card or account details are entered on PayPal's systems and are never transmitted to, seen by, or stored on our servers. We receive only the transaction reference, the amount, the status and the email address associated with the payment.
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email - receipts, access details and password resets - because those are not marketing.
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
The site is intended for Australians working overseas, people moving to Australia, and anyone living between two countries. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most - please read it before you rely on anything here.
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and the published Australian tax residency tests and rates only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
Resident or Not is an information and calculation service. It applies the published Australian tax residency tests and rates to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
Always confirm before you act.
You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us immediately at support@calculatedchoices.com.au if you suspect unauthorised use. We may suspend or close an account we reasonably believe is being used in breach of these terms.
A report you export as a PDF or otherwise save remains yours to keep and to show to family, an adviser or a registered tax agent. That licence is personal and non‑commercial. It does not permit republication, resale, or use as part of a product or service you provide to others.
Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
You must not:
All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
Subject always to section 15, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
You agree that this allocation of risk is reasonable given the price of the service and that the service is information rather than advice.
Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your provision of the site's output to a third party who relies on it. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach, negligence or wilful misconduct.
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms. Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 survive termination.
Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au