Hi there,I lived in Australia on a 482 (temporary) Visa for a couple of years now (Australian resident for tax purposes), and as I was not eligible for Medicare, I had the full levy exemption for previous financial years.This year I applied for Permanent Residency on 14th March, which made me eligible for Medicare. I immediately applied for a card, but Services Australia was very slow due to COVID, plus my PR application came through on 9th April, so I had to resend the application documents to Services Australia, as I needed to provide different documents to them after I became a Permanent Resident.Eventually, Services Australia processed my Medicare enrolment on 5th May.In addition, my salary puts me over the threshold to pay Medicare Levy Surcharge if I didn't have the appropriate private hospital cover, so after receiving my Medicare number, I immediately changed my private cover from Visitor to an appropriate level of hospital cover on 11th May. It was impossible to get such cover without a Medicare number, so I had to stay on my Visitor Cover (which is mandatory for the 482 Visa) until my enrolment process was finalized.I got a Medicare Entitlement Statement from Services Australia, which shows that I was not eligible for Medicare until 14th March this year, which is what I expected.I have two questions here:1) Do I have to pay the levy from 14th March, even though it took almost 2 months for Services Australia to enrol me to the Medicare system? I had the intent to get covered by Medicare from the moment I was eligible, yet it took so long to actually get it done.2) Do I need to pay the surcharge between 14th March (when I became eligible) and 11th May (when I managed to get the private hospital cover)? I would find this outrageous as I wanted to have a private hospital cover already in March, but not having a Medicare number (due to Services Australia's slow processes) it was impossible to get one, and there were no processes in place for people who are currently waiting to be enrolled. This is quite a big surcharge and I already paid $1500 for private hospital cover for the year.I hope I managed to describe my situation accurately, please let me know if you need more information to answer my questions. Thanks!
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Hi @doc4621,
To answer your first question, you would be liable for Medicare Levy from the date of entitlement on the Medicare Entitlement Statement.
In regards to question number 2, you'll need to apply for a private ruling so that we can make a tax determination, as it's not a common scenario we can advise on.
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Hi @doc4621,
To answer your first question, you would be liable for Medicare Levy from the date of entitlement on the Medicare Entitlement Statement.
In regards to question number 2, you'll need to apply for a private ruling so that we can make a tax determination, as it's not a common scenario we can advise on.