Private ruling: Residency
Date of advice: 22 May 2019
Published: July 2019
Ruling period: Year ended 30 June 2018 | Year ending 30 June 2019
Date scheme commenced: 1 July 2017

Ruling: Q1: Are you a resident of Australia for income tax purposes from your date of departure? | A1: No. Having considered your circumstances as a whole and the residency tests, it is accepted that you are not a resident of Australia for income tax purposes. Further information on residency can be found by searching 'QC 33232' on ato.gov.au

Relevant facts and circumstances: Your country of origin is Australia. You are an Australian citizen. In late 20XX you and your spouse departed Australia to move to Country Y, with the intention of living and working there for at least two years. A short time after that you began the process of obtaining approval for temporary six month visa’s in Country Y for you and your spouse, which were approved and issued in early 20XX. These temporary visas were replaced by two year residential visas in mid 20XX, which expire in mid-20XX. You were issued with a 12 month work permit in early 20XX , which was replaced with a subsequent 12 month work permit which expires a couple of years later. You have not returned to Australia since you commenced living and working in Country Y, and you do not intend on returning to Australia to visit more than four times every year. You now consider that your country of residence is Country Y, as this is where your new employment is based. You and your spouse have removed your names from the Australian electoral roll. You and your spouse have advised Medicare and your private health insurer to remove your names from their records. Prior to moving to Country Y you and your spouse lived in your residential property in Australia, which was within daily commuting distance of your previous employment in Australia. You have now rented this property out fully furnished following your move to Country Y. You also own two other rental properties in Australia which are rented out and managed via an Australian real estate agent. From late in 20XX, your employer in Country Y arranged temporary hotel accommodation for one month in a major city in Country Y. A couple of months after this, you sourced a fully furnished two bedroom high-rise apartment in a gated community in a province of Country Y, which you privately leased for 12 months. Following the expiry of that lease, in early 20XX you moved into a different fully furnished two bedroom apartment in another gated community which you have privately leased for six months. This apartment was more expensive to lease, so you chose to only commit to a shorter lease. Prior to leaving for Country Y, you held three motor vehicles in Australia. You were able to sell two of these, and the other, which you were unable to sell has been left with a friend in Australia. You own an aircraft in Australia. You have some personal possessions stored in a garage in your former residential property in Australia. You took your personal effects to Country Y, including hand held devices, a personal computer and some sporting equipment. You and your spouse own motor vehicles in Country Y, along with household effects and some sporting equipment. You have advised relevant Australian financial institutions that you are now a non-resident. Your employer deducts tax in Country Y from your gross earnings twice monthly, and you are not aware of any requirement for you to lodge an income tax return in Country Y. You have bank accounts in Country Y and Australia. You and your spouse also have a credit card facility in Country Y. Your spouse, who has travelled to Country Y to live with you, is a dual citizen of Australia and Country X. Your spouse considers themselves to be retired. During the time you and your spouse have lived in Country Y, your spouse has travelled to Country X and Country Z to visit family for short periods only. In late 20XX you joined your spouse on a two week holiday in Country X, where you met your eldest child and their spouse. In late 20XX, your other child and their spouse flew to Country Y and joined you for the holidays. In early 20XX, you and your spouse holidayed in Country ZZ for one week where you joined family members visiting from Country X. Apart from being a member of one sporting club in Australia, you do not have any sporting or social connections in Australia. You do not have any social and sporting connections with Country Y. On your outgoing passenger cards, you stated that you were leaving Australia to take up work and residency in another country. You and your spouse both have current driver’s licences in Country Y and Australia. Following the closure of where you worked in Australia, in late 20XX you were offered a two year contract to work in Country Y. Your work contract allows for an extension beyond two years by mutual agreement with your overseas employer. You are strongly contemplating extending your employment in Country Y, due to the lower living costs. Neither you or your spouse have a Commonwealth of Australia Superannuation Fund.

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