Australian TAX offshore ?????

Hi Deepseacon,

It’s not clear where you’re being paid, you mention an overseas branch and an agency?

If you’re a Ozzie non-resident and being paid through the Ozzie office, tax will be deducted at source and that can be used as a tax credit for your local tax office. You can claim your super back as well for being non-resident.

However, if you’re an Ozzie and you live overseas you can’t claim it back. A different tax rate applies for non-residents on the lower tax bands, but it’s the same on the upper tax bands.

All the gen you require is on the ATO’s web site.

If you’re being paid the UK or SE Asia rate you will have to check with them if they’re deducting tax at source.

There’s a little known fact about work in Oz and the agencies don’t band it about and that all work in Oz by non-residents must be paid at the Ozzie rate. It’s ozzie law and if they tell you differently, well all I can say is they’re being economic with the truth.

Who’s the agency anyway?

regards

Stu

Well are you a resident in Australia for tax or not??..Its so simple if yo are then you pay tax… 🙄 😉

Hi..Can I ask if you are Australian or not and are you being paid Offshore Austrlian rates?

looking at your location DSC, this may be of benefit. exact same rules apply for phillipines. this applies to wages type income only.
if any other agreements needed, yell out.

AGREEMENT BETWEEN AUSTRALIA AND THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBLE TAXATION AND THE PREVENTION OF FISCAL EVASION WITH RESPECT TO TAXES ON INCOME

ARTICLE 15 Dependent Personal Services

1.

Subject to the provisions of Articles 16, 18, 19 and 20, salaries, wages and other similar remuneration derived by an individual who is a resident of one of the Contracting States in respect of an employment shall be taxable only in that State unless the employment is exercised in the other Contracting State. If the employment is so exercised, such remuneration as is derived from that exercise may be taxed in that other State.

2.

Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1, remuneration derived by an individual who is a resident of one of the Contracting States in respect of an employment exercised in the other Contracting State shall be taxable only in the first mentioned State if:

(a) the recipient is present in that other State for a period or periods not exceeding in the aggregate 183 days in the tax year or year of income, as the case may be, of that other State;

(b) the remuneration is paid by, or on behalf of, an employer who is not a resident of that other State; and

(c) the remuneration is not deductible in determining taxable profits of a permanent establishment or a fixed base which the employer has in that other State.

3.

Notwithstanding the preceding provisions of this Article, remuneration in respect of an employment exercised aboard a ship or aircraft operated in international traffic by a resident of one of the Contracting States may be taxed in that Contracting State.

In Question about Australia the companies bring in outsiders for many reasons.

These days I personally wouldn’t get involved with what you are contemplating doing.

We’ve had a bit of a discussion about this in the past and at the time I picked up a bit on how some companies have been trying it on down there.
I also picked up a bit on how the local Oz lads feel about this practice. Not good.
One (of a few) of the reasons companies bring in so called ‘outsiders‘ appears to be so that they can get away with paying lower rates than the agreed/going Oz rate.
In so doing they undermine employment opportunities and contract conditions for the local Oz lads! Not really on is it?
It also appears that a few companies are exploiting 457 visa out-with the spirit of it’s introduction. Barely legal, if at all, and I sense probably a loophole that will be shut in future… to offshore workers at least.

I would suggest that you may come unstuck if you try to avoid tax altogether in this instance. As we all know, due to the global recession, tax authorities are becoming much less forgiving in situations such as these. The 457 ‘may‘ help you avoid tax in Oz but you would only need the Singapore or Oz tax authorities to check on the Singapore company taking you on and they would spill the beans in seconds.. the rest would all end in beers at Bernies!!

In the EU…..
There was an instance where a well known offshore Aberdeen based ROV employer was asked by the Danish tax authorities about a single person whom they had evidence of having worked in Denmark. They were looking for their slice of the pie.. It took the company all of an hour to email all of that persons personal contact details directly to the Danish tax department. No hesitation.
The person was receiving emails and phone calls within a few hours after that! It appears that if you don’t play ball and they get no response they will simply email all those details and their suspicions on your work activities to any tax authority they feel should know about them.

You might also wish to consider that if any Oz people you are working with offshore get a sniff of you avoiding tax you could end up with your name being called into the Oz Tax ‘Dob In’ line.

I sense you may be opening a greater can of worms than you might want to deal with.

Go there, work, pay the tax and sleep easy!