Why March Is Your Goldilocks Moment for End of Financial Year Tax Planning
If you’re an Australian expat reading this in mid-March 2026, you’ve hit the sweet spot for an end of financial year (EOFY) Australian Expat Tax Return Checklist to help you with your EOFY 2026 tax planning.
Too many expats wait until May to think about their end of financial year obligations. By then, panic has set in, your accountant’s diary is full, and your options for legitimate Australian expatriate tax planning have evaporated. You’re stuck reacting instead of planning.
On the other hand, thinking about EOFY in November feels premature. You don’t have enough data, circumstances can change, and motivation fizzles out by the time June arrives.
March is different. You have just enough runway to be strategic without feeling rushed. Budget 2026 speculation is starting to heat up, and if you own Australian property, you should be paying attention (as some key rules might be changing). Your accountant isn’t drowning in lodgement deadlines yet. And crucially, you still have time to make meaningful decisions that could save you thousands.
This is your window for effective EOFY June 2026 preparations.
Who This 2026 Expat Tax Checklist For?
This guide is written specifically for Australian citizens and permanent residents who are:
- Currently living and working overseas
- Receiving foreign employment income
- Holding Australian assets (property, shares, superannuation)
- Unsure about their tax residency status
- Facing their first EOFY as an expat, or returning after years away
If you’re an Australian expat who’s been putting off “dealing with tax stuff”, this is your structured, month-by-month plan to get it done properly before 30 June 2026.
Your Month-by-Month Action Plan: End of Financial Year Checklist
March 2026: Foundations and Status Checks
March is about establishing your baseline. You can’t make smart decisions until you know where you stand.
1. What Is My Tax Residency Status as an Australian Expat?
This is the single most important question you’ll answer this financial year: are you an Australian tax resident or non-resident?
Your residency status determines:
- Whether you pay tax on your worldwide income or just Australian-sourced income
- Your eligibility for the tax-free threshold and tax offsets
- Whether you can claim the main residence CGT exemption (if you own property)
- Your Medicare levy obligations
- How your super contributions are taxed
Under section 6(1) of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936, residency is determined by looking at multiple factors. There’s no single test. Instead there’s four separate tests, the:
- ‘Resides’ Test – a person is a tax resident of Australia if they ‘reside’ in Australia;
- Domicile Test – a person is a tax resident of Australia if their domicile is in Australia, unless the Commissioner is satisfied that the person’s permanent place of abode is outside Australia;
- 183-Day Test – a person is a tax resident of Australia if that person has actually been in Australia, continuously or intermittently, during more than one‑half of the year of income, unless the Commissioner is satisfied that the person’s usual place of abode is outside Australia and that the person does not intend to take up residence in Australia; and,
- Commonwealth Superannuation Test – a person is a tax resident of Australia if the person is:
(A) a member of the superannuation scheme established by deed under the Superannuation Act 1990; or
(B) an eligible employee for the purposes of the Superannuation Act 1976; or
(C) the spouse, or a child under 16, of a person covered by sub‑subparagraph (A) or (B).
Of these tests, the ‘Resides’ Test and the Domicile Test, are the two most difficult tests to apply as they can be very subjective and grey, hinging around various facts including (but not limited to):
- Physical presence in Australia (the 183-day rule is one indicator, not a bright line)
- Location of your permanent home
- Family and business ties
- Intention and purpose of your time overseas
- Purpose of your presence, conduct and behaviour whilst in Australia
- Continuity of Australian ties (Medicare, bank accounts, driver’s licence, etc.)
Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1 provides detailed guidance. Read it. If you’re unclear after reading it, that’s to be expected as the ruling includes generalities and is not as detailed or as we’d prefer it to be. Residency is genuinely complex for expats in transitional situations.
What’s a good idea to do this month:
- Document your physical presence: when you left Australia, time spent back in Australia this financial year
- List your ongoing Australian ties: property ownership, bank accounts, super funds, family location
- Note your foreign ties: employment contract dates, visa type, accommodation lease
- Make a preliminary assessment using the ATO’s residency questions (however this is not to be relied on fully as it’s too general in nature, but it may give you some indication of your residency status)
Don’t make assumptions. A common mistake is thinking “I’ve been gone 18 months, so I’m definitely a non-resident.” Residency doesn’t work that way. Each of Australia’s residency tests work differently from one another, most are subjective and grey, and your facts and circumstances are unique and specific only to you – so determining residency can be challenging, particularly when you consider that if you pass, just one of Australia’s four residency tests, you’ll be a tax resident!
2. Check Your Superannuation Fund Status
If you’ve left Australia this financial year to relocate overseas, you’ll likely still have an opportunity to make tax deductible contributions to your Australian superannuation fund and have that deduction apply against the Australian income that you earned before you left, thus generating tax savings for you.
A word of caution however, that before you consider making a contribution to your Australian superannuation fund, it’s worth double-checking how your new host country (the country where you now live) treats any contribution to superannuation.
If you live in the United States (US) and you are a resident alien (tax resident) for US tax purposes, it’s generally not advisable from a tax strategy perspective (for a number of reasons) to contribute to superannuation. The US does not recognise Australian superannuation in the same way that is does US tax-deferred retirement accounts (e.g. 401(k) or IRA plans). As such, the US does not treat contributions to your Australian superannuation fund as tax-deferred contributions and consequently, employer and deductible personal contributions may be taxable to you in the US, in the year they are made.
If you are unsure about how your host country treats your super contributions, and/or whether or not it makes sense (from a tax perspective) to even make a contribution to super whilst you’re an Australian expat living and working overseas, book a free 30 minute ‘General Enquiry’ appointment with our team, or
Action items:
- Log in to your super fund portal (all of them, if you have multiple accounts)
- Verify your contact details and overseas address (update your details where applicable)
- Confirm the fund accepts contributions from non-residents (most funds do btw)
- Check whether you have adequate insurance cover (and whether you need it given the premiums, and whether it covers you whilst you’re a non-resident)
- Check how much your Australian employer (or yourself) contributed to superannuation for you since 1st July 2025 and compare that to your maximum annual contribution cap (usually $30,000 – this amount is usually the maximum that can be contributed to superannuation as a concessional contribution, known as a deductible superannuation contribution) – the difference between the amount contributed to your fund since 1st July 2025 and $30,000 is usually the maximum amount that you can contribute to superannuation prior to 30th June 2026.
- If you’re under 35, check if your account has been transferred to the ATO as unclaimed super
If you plan to make voluntary (potentially tax deductible) contributions before 30 June, you need to know your fund will accept them, and what you need to do for that to happen. Discovering on 29 June that your fund won’t process your contribution is not a good day.
3. HELP/HECS Overseas Notification
If you have an outstanding Higher Education Loan Programme (HELP) or Higher Education Contribution Scheme (HECS) debt, you are legally required to notify the ATO within seven days of moving overseas.
Many expats miss this. The penalty for non-compliance can be significant.
From the 2025-26 income year, HELP repayment thresholds use a new marginal rate repayment method (see rates below). If you’re overseas with worldwide income above the minimum threshold (currently $67,000), you’re required to make repayments based on your total world-wide income, not just on your Australian-sourced income.
| Repayment income | Repayment on this income |
|---|---|
| $0 – $67,000 | Nil |
| $67,001 – $125,000 | 15c for each $1 over $67,000 |
| $125,001 – $179,285 | $8,700 plus 17c for each $1 over $125,000 |
| $179,286 and over | 10% of your total repayment income |
What to do:
- Check your myGov account to see if you’ve already notified the ATO of your overseas move
- If not, submit the notification immediately (even if you’ve been overseas for years)
- Estimate your worldwide income for 2025-26 to understand your likely repayment obligation
This isn’t optional. Get it done.
Important Tip: Because voluntary payments do not count towards the compulsory HELP deb repayments a person is required to make, we highly recommend that you DO NOT make any voluntary HELP debt repayments (unless you can afford to pay off ALL of your remaining HELP debt prior to 30 June 2026).
The reason for this is because of how the compulsory HELP debt repayment rules work – if at 30 June you are 1) a non-resident for Australian taxation purposes, and 2) you have a HELP (or other student loan debt), then you will be required to pay a compulsory HELP debt payment based at the appropriate rate (in the above table) depending upon your world-wide repayment income.
What this means in practice, is that when you make voluntary repayments of your HELP debt balance, if you are not able to repay your entire debt by 30 June, you’ll still have a HELP debt remaining. If that is the case, and if you are a non-resident on that date (30 June), you will be required to make a compulsory HELP debt repayment in addition to the your voluntary payments that you will have already made – and that could hurt, particularly when you never budgeted for a compulsory repayment in addition to your voluntary repayments!
April 2026: Property, CGT and Records
April is your planning month for capital gains tax decisions. If you own Australian property or shares, this is when you map out scenarios.
1. How Does Capital Gains Tax Work for Expat Property Owners?
If you’re a non-resident who owns Australian property, the rules are less generous than they used to be:
- Main residence exemption: If you are non-resident, from 30 June 2020, you are unable to claim the main residence CGT exemption, even for the period that you lived in the property before you moved overseas. There was a transition rule for those who became non-residents before 30 June 2020, but that’s long gone sadly. The golden rule for Australian expats who have an Australian main residence is – DO NOT sell your property whilst you are a non-resident, as you will not receive a main residence exemption. This means that the entire gain that you make (excluding any 50% CGT discount that you may be entitled to), will be taxable.
- CGT discount: Non-residents are only entitled to the 50% CGT discount on for the days that they were an Australian resident versus the total days that they owned the property (in other words, the 50% discount will be pro-rated under section 115-115). For example if you were a resident for 365 days out of 730 days of ownership (i.e. for half the time), your the CGT discount that you will be entitled to will be 25% (50% x 365/730 = 25%).
- Foreign resident capital gains withholding (FRCGW): Since 1 January 2025, a 15% withholding applies to all property transactions by foreign residents, regardless of value. The previous $750,000 threshold no longer applies. – the 15% withholding applies regardless of the sale price of the property.
If you’re considering selling property or other assets before 30 June 2026, you need to model:
- What your capital gain would be,
- How much CGT discount you will be entitled to reduce the taxable gain (i.e. how much of the gain will be tax-free due to the CGT discount that you are entitled to),
- What your marginal tax rate would be this year versus future years,
- Whether timing the sale for early July instead of late June makes a material difference, and
- Importantly, whether the gain would also be taxable in the country where you now live and work!
Budget 2026 uncertainty: The Federal Budget will be handed down in May 2026. There’s speculation about potential CGT changes. The Treasurer has not ruled out modifications to the discount or treatment of investment properties. This creates a dilemma: do you sell before the Budget, crystallising your tax position under current rules, or wait to see what changes?
There’s no universal answer. If you’re close to a decision anyway, certainty has value. If you weren’t planning to sell, don’t let speculation alone drive the decision.
2. Organise Your Records
April is when you start to gather the documents you’ll need for your 2025-26 tax return.
Create a folder (physical or digital) and start collecting:
- Foreign employment contracts and payslips
- Evidence of foreign tax paid (payslips showing withholding, foreign tax assessments)
- Bank statements showing interest income (Australian and foreign)
- Dividend statements from Australian shares
- Rental property income and expense records (if applicable)
- Receipts for work-related expenses (if you’re a tax resident, or if some of your employment income was earned before became a non-resident)
- Records of any super contributions you may have made
- Capital gains/losses from asset sales (or at the very least, all of the purchase/transaction records and sale records for any assets sold)
- Evidence of your residency status (lease agreements, visa documents, travel records)
The ATO can request substantiation for anything you claim. “I think I paid around X” doesn’t cut it.
3. Clearance/Variation Certificate Planning
If you are planning to sell Australian real property and you’re a foreign resident, the purchaser is required to withhold 15% of the sale price and remit it to the ATO unless you obtain a a variation certificate or a clearance certificate (note, clearance certificates are generally only available for tax residents, not non-residents).
Applying for a variation certificate or clearance certificate can take several weeks. If you’re planning a sale for later in the year, start the process early. The ATO needs to verify your residency status, and that you don’t have outstanding tax debts, and they’ll usually want you to document, evidence and substantiate your estimated capital gain calculation (required when applying for the relevant certificate)
May 2026: Foreign Income, FITO and Budget Preparation
May is about understanding your foreign income position and preparing for Budget announcements.
1. How Do I Report Foreign Income as an Australian Expat?
If you’re an Australian tax resident, you’re taxable on worldwide income. That includes:
- Foreign employment income
- Foreign interest and dividends
- Rental income from foreign property
- Capital gains on foreign assets
You need to convert all foreign income to Australian dollars using the ATO’s exchange rates for the relevant period.
Common mistake: Forgetting to declare foreign interest income from overseas bank accounts and other foreign income. Even if it’s a small amount, it’s assessable income when you’re an Australian tax resident.
2. Calculate Your Foreign Income Tax Offset (FITO)
If you’ve remained a tax resident of Australian and you’ve paid foreign tax on income that’s also taxable in Australia, you can claim a Foreign Income Tax Offset to prevent double taxation.
The offset is limited to the lesser of:
- The foreign tax you actually paid, or
- The Australian tax payable on that foreign income
You need evidence of the foreign tax paid – it has to have been paid (as opposed to being payable but unpaid) if we’re to have any chance of claiming the foreign tax as a tax credit (FITO) against your Australian tax payable. Foreign payslips, tax assessments, or withholding statements are acceptable. Screenshots of bank transactions are not sufficient.
FITO calculations can be complex, particularly if you have income from multiple countries or if there’s a tax treaty involved. Australia has double tax agreements (DTAs) with many countries that can affect how income is taxed and which country has primary taxing rights.
If your foreign income is substantial or comes from multiple sources, this is the point where engaging expatriate tax specialists like us makes sense.
3. Budget 2026 Preparation
Budget night 2026 will be occur this month (May). Speculation is building around potential changes to:
- Capital gains tax treatment (discount percentage, application to investment properties)
- Negative gearing rules
- Superannuation contribution caps or tax rates
- HELP/HECS repayment thresholds
As an expat, you should be monitoring these discussions, particularly if you own Australian property or have significant super balances.
What to do in May:
- Set a reminder for Budget night (date to be confirmed, typically second Tuesday in May)
- Identify which parts of your financial situation could be affected by policy changes
- Consider the trade-off between acting now (certainty) versus waiting (potential benefit if rules become more favourable)
Don’t make fear-based decisions, but don’t ignore the risk either.
May 2026: Post-Budget Response and Document Sprint
May is crunch time. Budget 2026 has been handed down, you know what’s changing (if anything), and you have roughly 60 days from the start of this month to finalise decisions.
1. What Should Expats Do After Budget 2026?
Within 48 hours of Budget night, you should understand:
- Whether any announced changes affect you
- Whether those changes apply from 1 July 2026 or a later date
- Whether grandfathering provisions protect existing arrangements
If significant changes are announced (for example, reductions to the CGT discount or changes to super contribution caps), you may need to accelerate decisions you were planning to make later in the year.
This is not the time for hot takes or panic. Read the Budget papers, not just the headlines. Proposed changes aren’t law until they pass Parliament.
Action items:
- Review the Budget measures affecting expats (Treasury’s website will have detailed fact sheets)
- Assess whether you need to change your June strategy
- If major decisions are needed (property sale, large super contribution), consult our specialist expatriate tax team immediately
By early May, most quality accountants are starting to fill their diaries for June. If you need advice, book in early by booking in May.
2. Document Gathering Sprint
This is your final push to gather everything you’ll need for your tax return.
Double-check you have:
- Complete foreign income records for the full financial year (1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026)
- Evidence of all foreign tax paid
- Australian income statements (dividends, rental income, interest)
- Super contribution confirmations
- Records of any capital gains or losses
If you’re missing anything, May is when you chase it down. Waiting until October (when your return is usually due) means you’re dealing with 16-month-old transactions. Good luck finding that payslip or tax receipt.
3. Confirm Your Medicare Levy Position
If you’re a non-resident for tax purposes, you’re generally not liable for the Medicare levy. However, if you’re a resident who spent part of the year overseas, you might qualify for a full or partial exemption under the “not entitled to Medicare benefits” rules.
Check whether:
- You’re enrolled in Medicare (if you’re not enrolled, you’re not entitled to benefits)
- You’ve spent more than half the financial year overseas
- You’re covered by a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement (RHCA) country’s health system
If you qualify for an exemption, you can claim it when you lodge your return. For high-income earners, this can save several thousand dollars.
June 2026: Final Execution
June is not the month to be making complex decisions. June is execution month. By now, you should know what you’re doing. June is when you do it.
1. When Should I Make Superannuation Contributions Before End Of Financial Year (EOFY)?
If you’re making voluntary super contributions before 30 June, here’s what you need to know:
Contribution caps:
- Concessional contributions (including employer super guarantee): $30,000 per financial year
- Non-concessional contributions: $120,000 per financial year (or up to $360,000 under the bring-forward rule if eligible)
Critical timing rule: Contributions must be RECEIVED by your super fund before 30 June 2026, not just sent by you. Thus, if you’re making a contribution in late June, allow at least 5-10 business days for processing. A BPAY payment initiated on 30 June might not be received until July, which means it counts towards the 2026-27 cap, not 2025-26 and it could undo all of your tax-planning.
If you’re a non-resident making a concessional contribution (salary sacrifice or personal deductible contribution), confirm your fund will accept it and that you’ll be eligible to claim the deduction. Non-residents have more limited ability to claim deductions for super contributions in some circumstances.
2. Execute Any Property or Asset Sales
If you’ve decided to sell property or other assets before 30 June, this is your last chance.
Keep in mind:
- Contract date determines which financial year the capital gain/loss falls into, not settlement date (capital gains are calculated based on the contract date),
- If you’re selling property as a foreign resident, ensure the purchaser’s solicitor receives your your clearance or variation certificate well before settlement and that they understand how these certificates affect the purchaser’s withholding obligation,
- If you’re selling shares, understand whether these will be taxable in Australia, your host country or both.
Don’t leave this to 29 June. Things go wrong. Markets close. Solicitors go on holiday.
3. Book Your Accountant
If you’re using a registered tax agent like us here at Expat Taxes, book your appointment for June, July or August now. Many expat tax specialists are fully booked by mid-June for the following eight weeks.
Even if you’re planning to lodge your own return, consider a one-off consultation to review your residency status and ensure you’re not missing anything. The cost of getting residency wrong can dwarf the cost of professional advice.
Standard lodgement deadline: 31 October 2026 (if you’re lodging your own return)
Tax agent deadline: Extended, typically mid-May 2027 (if you use a registered agent) although it can be earlier in some cases
If your affairs are complex (foreign income, CGT events, residency uncertainty), using a registered tax agent saves you the complexity of preparing your own returns and reduces your risk of errors.
What We Know (and Don’t Know) About Proposed Residency Changes
You may have heard that “new residency rules started from 1 January 2026.” Let’s clear this up.
What’s actually happening:
The Australian government, in May 2019 proposed a new residency framework that would introduce a “Bright Line” test: you’d be an Australian tax resident if you’re physically present in Australia for 183 days or more in any income year, or if you have a “substantial connection” to Australia (including citizenship or permanent residence plus an Australian residence).
The problem: Those proposal were scrapped mid-2019 when the then Liberal government called the election. And since then (as of the date of this article in March 2026), the proposals have not resurfaced. Accordingly, Australia’s long-standing residency rules (the ‘Resides Test’, ‘Domicile Test, 183 Day Test and the Commonwealth Superannuation Test) laid out in section 6(1) of ITAA 1936 continue to apply.
The proposed Bright Line test may simplify residency determination for some Australian expats. But until the proposals are put forward in some form again, and until legislation is drafted, debated, and passed by Parliament, and until it receives Royal Assent, it’s nothing more than speculation about a potential change.
What this means for you:
- Don’t rely on the proposed rules when determining your 2025-26 tax position,
- Use the current residency laws (and refer to TR 2023/1 to understand how Australia’s residency tests apply),
- Keep your eyes and ears open and pay attention to this website, and media reports just in case new residency rules are proposed
If anyone (including an accountant) tells you definitively how the new rules work, ask them to cite the legislation reference. If they can’t, they’re either scaremongering, or guessing.
Stay updated: Monitor our website, the ATO website and Treasury announcements for confirmation of when (or if) any new residency rules commence.
When to Do It Yourself (DIY) or Hire a Specialist
There’s a myth that tax returns are either “simple enough to do yourself” or “too complicated for anyone but a Big Four firm.”
The reality is more nuanced.
You can probably DIY if:
- You’re clearly a non-resident with only Australian-sourced income (salary, dividends)
- You have no capital gains or losses
- Your foreign tax situation is straightforward (or non-existent)
- You’re comfortable reading ATO guidance, rulings and legislation and applying it to your situation
You should hire a specialist if:
- Your residency status is unclear or changed during the financial year (e.g you left Australia to relocate overseas)
- You have foreign employment income and you’re not sure whether you’re a resident
- You own a residential (or commercial) rental property and earn rental income and have rental deductions
- You work remotely for an Australian company (or you work remotely for a foreign company, if you live in Australia)
- You’re claiming foreign income tax offsets
- You’ve sold Australian property or shares
- You’re making large super contributions and want to optimise tax deductions
- You’re planning to return to Australia in the next 12 months and want to position yourself correctly
If you meet any of the above criteria, it’s important to get things right – because mistakes can be costly, very costly indeed! For example, even just a single mistake on a CGT calculation or residency determination can cost literally tens of thousands or more.
Red flag: If an accountant quotes you $250 for an expat return without asking detailed questions about your circumstances (particularly when assessing your residency status), they’re either undercharging (which means they’ll rush it) or they don’t understand expatriate tax for Australians (which usually means they’ll get it wrong).
Quality advice costs money. Mistakes cost a lot more.
Your Next Step
You’ve just read this article, about EOFY planning which is a good first step for getting ready for your taxes. But reading about tax and actually sorting your tax are two different things.
If you’re still unclear about your residency status, unsure whether you should be making super contributions, or confused about what the Budget changes mean for you, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
At Expat Taxes Australia, we specialise in exactly this: Australian expats with cross-border tax complexity. Residency determinations. Foreign income. Capital gains. HELP/HECS obligations. We see these situations every day.
Book a consultation at www.expattaxes.com.au/appointments and we’ll help you build a plan specific to your situation.
You have a few months until 30 June. That’s enough time to get this right, but only if you start now.
March is your Goldilocks moment. Use it.
Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not constitute personal financial or taxation advice. Tax laws are complex and change frequently. You should seek professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances before making any financial decisions.
About Expat Taxes Australia
We’re specialists in Australian tax for expats. Whether you’re working overseas temporarily, emigrating permanently, or returning to Australia after years away, we help you navigate residency, foreign income, super, and all the complexity that comes with being an Australian abroad.
Visit www.expattaxes.com.au or book a consultation at www.expattaxes.com.au/appointments.
