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So you thought you were just going to be passing through, but realized how great
Australia is and decided to stay for 6 months or longer. Well, if you worked during
your time here instead of just living off the kindness of others, than you are entitled
to a little bit of that money the government taxed you for. It's time to get your
backpacker tax returns in.
The first thing you need to get your backpacker tax back is to register. You have to
qualify as and Australian resident for tax purposes, which is a completely different
thing than an actual Australian resident recognized by the Australian Immigration
Department.
Now, this is when you need to decide whether you will be doing your backpacker tax return on your
own or whether you'll be hiring a company to do them for you. This should all
depend on a number of different circumstances you need to consider: 1) Did you clear
a substantial enough amount of money that your willing to pay a company to do your
tax return for you. 2) Whether you'll be in Australia at the end of the fiscal year: 30 June.
If you are not going to be in the country by the time it comes to receive your
backpacker tax return, then you might want to consider going through a company that
will be able to arrange an early assessment for you. You don't have to wait, some
companies can file your taxes early for you.
Requirements for Backpacker Tax Returns
If you are going through any different number of companies, once you have all your
information in to them (PAYG Payment Summary, Statement of Earnings or Final
Pay Slip) it should take between 7-14 days to get your backpacker tax returns back.
However, it may take up to six weeks if you are leaving the country and filing your
final tax income because early requests are filed first. If you choose to go about filing
your taxes on your own than it might take longer to get your backpacker tax returns
back due to the fact that early requests are filed first, also the slowness of the system.
If you don't have any of those aforementioned documents than some companies will
only charge you $5 per missing PAYG Payment Summary.
When filling out your forms for your backpacker tax refund you will be able to
write something's off. These are things like union fees, green card courses, safety
equipment, stationary and uniform and laundry receipts. Like filing taxes anywhere,
be careful not to over exaggerate on expenses and remember it's better to be safe than
sorry when filing your backpacker tax returns.
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