I am an Australian citizen who has permanently moved to the UAE with my husband recently.
He works for a UAE company, my visa is spousal sponsorship with no requirement to work.
I continue to work as an employee remotely in the UAE for an Australian private company, assume this will be ongoing indefinitely for my questions.
We plan to return to Australia occasionally to visit family and friends, and would not stay more than one or two months at a time.
To work out my tax residency, I used (https://www.ato.gov.au/single-page-applications/calculatorsandtools#DORSLA/questions).
The result stated, "You are not an Australian resident for taxation purposes following your departure from Australia."
I also consulted the 4 tax residency tests:
- Resides and domicile tests: my permanent ongoing residency will be outside of Australia
- 183-day test: I have spent most of FY25 within Australia, what do I need to provide, retain or do, come tax lodgement in July? How is my status determined? I believe my ongoing responsibilities would only be continuing to lodge annual tax returns, even if I am a foreign resident?
- Superannuation test: The information is a bit unclear, can you please assist? I am not a government employee, I am a member of a public offer public sector fund.
I know my employer will have different responsibilities if I am deemed a non-tax resident.
Can you please provide some information on their responsibilities and when/how they can determine this?
From the calculator result info, I would like to confirm if my income is considered foreign or Australian sourced. If it is considered foreign, is it safe to assume that there is no tax liability as there is no tax treaty? What would the taxable rate be if the latter? What of super and leave?
Additional questions:
- I assume my HECs will continue to index if I don't do anything about it? What happens if I decide to pay for it now or in the future? Will that have any implications?
- I assume my super fund will decrease if my employer is no longer obliged to make contributions. Are there any implications if I decide to make voluntary repayments towards maintaining it?