I am a Singapore Citizen with Australian Permanent Residency and a salaried employee for an Australian-based company in Australia. When I moved back to Singapore, I continued to work remotely for the same company.
As I was an Australian Permanent Resident, my company's preference was for me to remain on the payroll and have the same employment benefits instead of switching me over to a foreign contractor. I agreed and my salary is currently still paid to my Australian bank account with tax withheld.
However, I am also paying income tax in Singapore as the work is carried out in Singapore so IRAS (SG's ATO counterpart) has confirmed that I am a SG tax resident.
For the period of 2022-2024, I am double taxed in both Singapore and Australia. I was advised that due to the tax treaty between both countries, I would be able to claim a tax return in Australia as I am considered a non-resident for tax purposes.
I engaged an Australian tax agent to help me with the 2022-23 tax return. My submission is:
- I am an Australian resident for immigration purposes but a non-resident for tax purposes.
- My employment income is Australian-sourced but I should not be paying double tax as:
- I am already paying SG income tax as the work is carried out in SG
- There is a tax treaty between Singapore and Australia
My tax agent agreed and advised this should be a straightforward process. However, they have now sent me the Notice of Assessment which shows that not only will I not receive any tax return, I am now liable for an additional tax liability.
My tax agent believes that ATO incorrectly processed my tax return and they have reached out to ATO via phone and ATO has advised that an objection needs to be made.
I didn't realise this would be so complicated as remote work is not a new thing. I engaged a tax agent as I thought this would help me better understand the taxability of remote workers.
If the ATO disgrees with the tax assessment, wouldn't they provide my tax agent with a reason for rejecting it? My tax agent now wants me to pay an additional fee if I want to raise an objection with ATO. They have provided no additional reasons beyond that it's an ATO processing error.
I'm hesitant to pay my tax agent any additional fee as I have paid for a service that has not provided me with a solution, I now also have a negative outcome. They also haven't responded to my email requesting for clarification.
I have reached out via ATO live chat to ask if I need to raise an objection as I'm worried about the time limitation and was advised that I would need to call ATO due to the complexity. However, it's difficult to call as I'm outside of Australia. Live chat support advised that I could lodge an amendment online and an objection is not needed at this stage, but this is different from what my tax agent advised.
Should I just lodge an amendment or an objection for the Notice of Assessment for 2022-23? I have gone through the articles here but I'm not sure what to amend as I already submitted that I'm a non-resident for tax purposes. Do I need to also submit my SG Notice of Assessment as proof that I'm already paying income tax in Singapore?
I am also still paying double tax for 2023-2024 as I'm still on the payroll and tax is still being withheld from my salary. I submitted a PAYG withholding variation application for 2023-24 and the outcome was that it was withdrawn.
Any advice would be appreciated, thanks in advance from a confused remote worker.
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