Want to use tax return to make HELP loan payment + foreign income tax offset.

[#1]

Hi,
I have moved from Australia to Ireland as of the 31/09 last year. Before leaving In had a HELP loan debt.

I have this year paid tax in Ireland and going by the information given to me by the ATO have a tax offset of $2401.22. Most of the income tax I paid was foreign.

I.cannot find any information relating to why my calculated tax return does not include this offset (when I use the myGov tax return form). It only shows that I am eligible for the Australian portion of income tax paid.

That is my first problem. My second issue is that after leaving I closed down my Australian bank account. As such I will.not be able to complete the tax return online and will need to complete a paper form.

Is it possible for me to do this and request the ATO to simply subtract the tax return amount from my HELP loan debt instead of mailing me a cheque?

Thanks in advance,
Sburton.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @sburton ,

Please consider reading the guide to Calculating and claiming your foreign income tax offset. The calculation is quite involved, and not knowing the specifics of your financial situation (in which you don't need to go into details in this forum), I cannot say for sure why you didnt see any foreign income tax offset appearing in your return. It should appear as a calculation in your tax summary, as it reduces your tax payable (see quote from above linked web page) -

"As a non-refundable tax offset, the foreign income tax offset reduces your income tax payable (including Medicare levy and Medicare levy surcharge)" (italics added). Just double checking - did you include your foreign income tax paid in your calculation? (see Item 20 Foreign source income 2020).

Regarding your tax return HELP fees question, if your tax return is processed by paper,it could take up to 3 months to come back (as per Notice of Assessment timeframes). Any debts to any other areas eg for HELP fees debt, will be debited from your account, and if there is a refund cheque, it will be reduced accordingly, before being posted to you. Otherwise, your notice of assessment will be posted to your address overseas with any amount owing to the ATO showing.