Australia Backpackers TAX REFUND

TAX refund. Many backpackers would use tax refund agencies to get the refund and be charged a percentage of the refund amount. The better way to do it is to lodge it ourselves using the ATO ETAX. ETAX can be downloaded online through ato.gov.au. Just need to follow the step by step instructions to lodge online. (which takes quite some time to understand how it works but will worth it in the end). You can do a pre-fill so the progress can be saved. First it will ask to verify your identity, which will be your bank account details or payment summary. To verify using payment summary (which is the gross payment you earn from one employer for that tax year) the employer must have lodged your tax detail to ATO. Since we can do the tax refund starting july till october, some employers might not lodge your tax so soon. Like our case, we worked for 3 different employers, we only manage to verify one employer's payment summary. So then we can manually key in the other 2 payment summary and tax paid from the pay slips we receive. Only do manual input if you are confident the amount (your payment summary and tax paid) is accurate, which matches the ATO's record. If not, you will need to wait for your employer's payment summary which can be requested from them via email (in normal case, the company will send to your correspondence address).

After the income section, just work your way through all the questions on medicare, pension, other incomes and etc etc. So for us Malaysian, what other relevant thing besides the income would be the tax deductible expenses. In this section we can claim for our working related expenses like work uniforms, gum boots, gloves, sunscreen, laundry, internet/phone charges. We can claim up to $300, if more than $300, the ATO might ask for the receipts.

The most important question ETAX will ask is whether you are a resident of Australia, you can click to see the definition of a resident. So normally backpackers are considered resident since we stay in Aus and work quite a long time. Non residents pay tax of 29%.

So if you made a mistake and state as non- resident, you might have to pay another few thousand dollars, more tax than you should.

After everything is filled, you can lodge it online. And tadaaaa.. After few days you will see the refund in your bank account if there is any. Very efficient government :)

Also, the superannuation that the employers given in your super account can be withdrawn when you leave Oz permanently... Which can be done online..

NZ HEre WE COME!!