Private ruling: Residency
Date of advice: 11 May 2026
Published: 20 July 2026
Ruling period: Year ended DD/MM/20YY | Year ended DD/MM/20YY | Year ended DD/MM/20YY | Year ended DD/MM/20YY
Date scheme commenced: DD/MM/20YY

Ruling: Q1: Are you an Australian resident for tax purposes from DD/MM/20YY? | A1: Yes.

Relevant facts and circumstances: You (Person A and Person B) were born in and are citizens of Australia. On DD/MM/20YY, you left Australia and purchased a boat which you have since been living on. Upon leaving, you stated you do not have any plans or arrangements to return to Australia to live. Any future travel to Australia would be limited to short, temporary visits (for example, to see family) and would not involve establishing residence. You vacated your lease upon leaving Australia. You state the purpose of your travel since departing Australia in MM/20YY has been to establish and maintain your primary residence overseas aboard your vessel, undertaking long-term cruising and exploration across multiple regions. You add, your travel reflects your lifestyle choice to live and operate your lives outside Australia for the foreseeable future, rather than temporary or short term. You also state, as a general overview, from MM/20YY onwards, your boat has been your primary place of residence. You have consistently lived and slept onboard while travelling internationally. Any stays in hotels, Airbnb, or with family and friends have just been short-term (for holidays, travel logistics, or specific commitments), rather than anywhere you have actually lived. You have provided a full breakdown of dates and countries visited since leaving Australia as below: • Upon leaving Australia you travelled to Country A for the next X months. • Between MM/20YY and MM/20YY whilst sailing and living aboard your vessel, you visited XX amount of countries. • Since MM/20YY, you have travelled to a further XX countries. When returning to Australia, you complete the incoming passenger card as required, stating your Australian citizenship, providing a temporary address in Australia for the short stay, and indicating that you do not intend to live in Australia. You do not maintain a permanent overseas address; when an address is required on official forms, you use your family's address. Most countries are visited under standard tourist visas or cruising permits. All stays are temporary and in accordance with the entry requirements of each country. The visas you hold or have held do not allow you to stay permanently in any country. You do not currently intend to apply for citizenship or permanent residency in any other country. You do not have any dependants. You have not established any permanent professional, social, or sporting connections in foreign countries, however your lifestyle is primarily aboard your vessel and involves traveling between countries. Occasionally, you may hold temporary memberships, such as short-term gym memberships, during your travels. You both hold Australian driver's licenses. You did not formally notify the Australian Electoral Commission or Medicare when you departed Australia. You cancelled your private health cover on leaving Australia. Your overseas assets include your vessel, along with all equipment and your personal belongings on board, and bank accounts. When you left Australia, you sold all personal effects that you were not taking with you aboard your vessel. You still hold bank accounts in Australia. You do not own any other assets in Australia. For any correspondence, you use temporary overseas addresses, such as marinas, to receive packages while traveling. Important documents are sent to your family's address in Australia. You generate income from creating travel content on your boat to post on social media platforms. You distribute this work through international platforms and clients. You add that you are not currently considered residents of any foreign country for taxation purposes. You have not lodged Australian income tax returns since departing Australia.

Relevant legislative provisions: Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 section 995-1 | Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 subsection 6(1)

Reasons for decision: Detailed Reasoning - Overview of the law: Section 995-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 (ITAA 1997) defines an Australian resident for tax purposes as a person who is a resident of Australia for the purposes of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936). The terms 'resident' and 'resident of Australia', as applied to an individual, are defined in subsection 6(1) of the ITAA 1936. The definition offers four tests to ascertain whether each individual taxpayer is a resident of Australia for income tax purposes. These tests are: • the resides test (also referred to as the ordinary concepts test) • the domicile test • the 183-day test, and • the Commonwealth superannuation fund test. The resides test is the primary test for deciding the residency status of an individual. This test considers whether an individual resides in Australia according to the ordinary meaning of the word 'resides'. Where an individual does not reside in Australia according to ordinary concepts, they will still be an Australian resident if they meet the conditions of one of the other tests (the domicile test, 183-day test and Commonwealth superannuation fund test). Our interpretation of the law in respect of residency is set out in Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1 Income tax: residency tests for individuals . We have considered the statutory tests listed above in relation to your situation as follows: | Detailed Reasoning - The resides test: The ordinary meaning of the word 'reside' has been expressed as 'to dwell permanently or for a considerable time, to have one's settled or usual abode, to live, in or at a particular place': See Commissioner of Taxation v Miller (1946) 73 CLR 93 at 99 per Latham CJ, citing Viscount Cave LC in Levene v Inland Revenue Commissioners [1928] AC 217 at 222, citing the Oxford English Dictionary. Likewise, the Macquarie Dictionary defines 'reside' as 'to dwell permanently or for a considerable time; have one's abode for a time'. The observations contained in the case of Hafza v Director-General of Social Security (1985) 6 FCR 444 are also important: Physical presence and intention will coincide for most of the time. But few people are always at home. Once a person has established a home in a particular place - even involuntarily: see Commissioners of Inland Revenue v Lysaght [1928] AC 234 at 248; and Keil v Keil [1947] VLR 383 - a person does not necessarily cease to be resident there because he or she is physically absent. The test is whether the person has retained a continuity of association with the place - Levene v Inland Revenue Commissioners [1928] AC 217 at 225 and Judd v Judd (1957) 75 WN (NSW) 147 at 149 - together with an intention to return to that place and an attitude that that place remains "home": see Norman v Norman (No 3) (1969) 16 FLR 231 at 235... here the general concept is applicable, it is obvious that, as residence of a place in which a person is not physically present depends upon an intention to return and to continue to treat that place as "home", a change of intention may be decisive of the question whether residence in a particular place has been maintained. The Commissioner considers the following factors in relation to whether a taxpayer is a resident under the 'resides' test: • period of physical presence in Australia • intention or purpose of presence • behaviour while in Australia • family and business/employment ties • maintenance and location of assets • social and living arrangements. It is important to note that no one single factor is decisive, and the weight given to each factor depends on each individual's circumstances. Because the resides test is about whether an individual resides in Australia, the factors focus on the individual's connection to Australia. Having a connection with another country, or being a resident of another country, does not diminish any connection to Australia. The ordinary meaning of reside does not require an individual to have a principle or usual place of residence in Australia. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your situation: You are not a resident of Australia under the resides test for the period 20 July 2021 to 30 June 2025based on the following: • You left Australia in MM/20YY, and purchased a boat which you have been living on since that date • Since MM/20YY, Person A has returned to Australia X times, and Person B X times for temporary visits to see family • You intend to continue residing outside Australia for the foreseeable future. Your current and planned lifestyle is based entirely overseas • You vacated your lease upon leaving Australia. • You state you do not have any plans or arrangements to return to Australia to live. Any future travel to Australia would be limited to short, temporary visits (for example, to see family) and would not involve establishing residence • The purpose of your travel since departing Australia in MM/20YY has been to establish and maintain your primary residence overseas aboard your vessel, undertaking long-term cruising and exploration across multiple regions You may still be an Australian resident if you meet the conditions of one of the other tests (the domicile test, 183-day test and Commonwealth superannuation fund test). | Detailed Reasoning - Domicile test: Under the domicile test, you are a resident of Australia if your domicile is in Australia unless the Commissioner is satisfied that your permanent place of abode is outside Australia. | Detailed Reasoning - Domicile: Whether your domicile is in Australia is determined by the Domicile Act 1982 and the common law rules on domicile. Your domicile is your domicile of origin (usually the domicile of your father at the time of your birth) unless you have a domicile of dependence or have acquired a domicile of choice elsewhere. To acquire a domicile of choice of a particular country you must be lawfully present there and hold the positive intention to make that country your home indefinitely. Your domicile continues until you acquire a different domicile. Whether your domicile has changed depends on an objective consideration of all relevant facts. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your situation: In your case, you were born in Australia and your domicile of origin is Australia. It is considered that you did not abandon your domicile of origin in Australia. You were not entitled to reside in any other country indefinitely and while visiting other countries, you only held temporary visas, as tourists. Therefore, your domicile is Australia. | Detailed Reasoning - Permanent place of abode: If you have an Australian domicile, you are an Australian resident unless the Commissioner is satisfied that your permanent place of abode is outside Australia. This is a question of fact to be determined in light of all the facts and circumstances of each case. 'Permanent' does not mean everlasting or forever, but it is to be distinguished from temporary or transitory. The phrase 'permanent place of abode' calls for a consideration of the physical surroundings in which you live, extending to a town or country. It does not extend to more than one country, or a region of the world. The Full Federal Court in Harding v Commissioner of Taxation [2019] FCAFC 29 held at paragraphs 36 and 40 that key considerations in determining whether a taxpayer has their permanent place of abode outside Australia are: • whether the taxpayer has definitely abandoned, in a permanent way, living in Australia • whether the taxpayer is living in a town, city, region or country in a permanent way. • The Commissioner considers the following factors relevant to whether a taxpayer's permanent place of abode is outside Australia: • the intended and actual length of the taxpayer's stay in the overseas country • whether the taxpayer intended to stay in the overseas country only temporarily and then to move on to another country or to return to Australia at some definite point in time • whether the taxpayer has established a home (in the sense of dwelling place; a house or other shelter that is the fixed residence of a person, a family, or a household), outside Australia • whether any residence or place of abode exists in Australia or has been abandoned because of the overseas absence • the duration and continuity of the taxpayer's presence in the overseas country • the durability of association that the person has with a particular place in Australia, i.e. maintaining assets in Australia, informing government departments such as the Department of Social Security that he or she is leaving permanently and that family allowance payments should be stopped, place of education of the taxpayer's children, family ties and so on. As with the factors under the resides test, no one single factor is decisive, and the weight given to each factor depends on the individual circumstances. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your situation: The Commissioner is not satisfied that your permanent place of abode is outside Australia because: • You have only spent short periods of time in each country you visited since leaving Australia • You do not maintain a permanent overseas address or home • You do not currently intend to apply for citizenship or permanent residency in any other country • You have not established any permanent professional, social, or sporting connections in any foreign country you visited You are not currently considered residents of any foreign country for taxation purposes Therefore, you are a resident of Australia under the domicile test. | Detailed Reasoning - 183-day test: Where a person is present in Australia for 183 days or more during the year of income the person will be a resident, unless the Commissioner is satisfied that both: • the person's usual place of abode is outside Australia, and • the person does not intend to take up residence in Australia. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your situation: You have not been present in Australia for 183 days or more during the 20YY, 20YY, 20YY or 20YY income years. Therefore, you are not a resident under this test. | Detailed Reasoning - Superannuation test: An individual is a resident of Australia if they are either a member of the superannuation scheme established by deed under the Superannuation Act 1990 or an eligible employee for the purposes of the Superannuation Act 1976, or they are the spouse, or the child under 16 of such a person. | Detailed Reasoning - Application to your situation: You are not a member on behalf of whom contributions are being made to the Public Sector Superannuation Scheme (PSS) or the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) or a spouse of such a person, or a child under 16 of such a person. Therefore, you are not a resident under this test. | Detailed Reasoning - Conclusion: You satisfy the domicile test of residency and so are a resident of Australia for income tax purposes for the years ended DD/MM/20YY, DD/MM/20YY, DD/MM/20YY and DD/MM/20YY.