You are right in that while the money you receive in Qatar is technically not taxed *here* and is therefore "tax free", you DO do have to look at the tax implications in Australia, especially if you are here for less than a full financial year, or arrive mid-financial year.
Firstly, I am not an expert so please do follow up with your own financial advisor.
Australia does not have a double tax agreement with Qatar. If you declare yourself an Australian resident for tax purposes for any financial year in which you earned income in Qatar, technically you have to declare your Qatar income and pax tax on it back in Aus (sucks).
If you declare yourself "not a resident for tax purposes" on your tax return for any financial year, any income earned overseas during that financial year is not taxed by the Australian government. BUT if you do that, you may well incur tax implications such as: you might have to pay the highest tax level on any income earned in your home country; or there might be tax implications on selling property or shares.
Also remember that your travels might not coincide neatly with the financial year, so there might be two tax returns that are impacted. You make this choice (resident or non-resident for tax purposes) *once* for each complete financial year – so if you start a job here in, say, January, you have to chose whether to pay higher tax on your Australian income for the first six months (ie previous July till current Jan) or pay Australian tax on your Qatar income for those months until the new financial year (ie current Jan till next June).
Basically - you need to do the math on the two options, given your own situation, and work out which is financially more beneficial.
Does this make sense? Sorry if not, and please ask for clarification on the bits that I didn’t explain properly.
Hi,
You are right in that while the money you receive in Qatar is technically not taxed *here* and is therefore "tax free", you DO do have to look at the tax implications in Australia, especially if you are here for less than a full financial year, or arrive mid-financial year.
Firstly, I am not an expert so please do follow up with your own financial advisor.
Australia does not have a double tax agreement with Qatar. If you declare yourself an Australian resident for tax purposes for any financial year in which you earned income in Qatar, technically you have to declare your Qatar income and pax tax on it back in Aus (sucks).
If you declare yourself "not a resident for tax purposes" on your tax return for any financial year, any income earned overseas during that financial year is not taxed by the Australian government. BUT if you do that, you may well incur tax implications such as: you might have to pay the highest tax level on any income earned in your home country; or there might be tax implications on selling property or shares.
Also remember that your travels might not coincide neatly with the financial year, so there might be two tax returns that are impacted. You make this choice (resident or non-resident for tax purposes) *once* for each complete financial year – so if you start a job here in, say, January, you have to chose whether to pay higher tax on your Australian income for the first six months (ie previous July till current Jan) or pay Australian tax on your Qatar income for those months until the new financial year (ie current Jan till next June).
Basically - you need to do the math on the two options, given your own situation, and work out which is financially more beneficial.
Does this make sense? Sorry if not, and please ask for clarification on the bits that I didn’t explain properly.
Cheers