Service 01 / 07 · Residency

Residency
determinations.

Australia's residency rules are subjective, grey, and decided on the full picture of your facts, circumstances and intentions - which is exactly why they're so easy to get wrong, and so costly when you do. We work the question through to a clear, defensible answer.

Book a residency consultation See what we cover

§ 01

Who this is for.

Your residency status is the single fact that drives almost everything else in your Australian tax life - what's assessable, which rates apply, whether the CGT discount survives, how your main residence is treated, and what your host country can tax. Get it right and the rest of the plan follows. Get it wrong and the errors compound, return after return.

This service is for anyone who can't answer the question with certainty: outbound expats unsure when they actually stopped being a resident, long-term expats who've never had the position confirmed, and returning Australians who need a defensible date of return.

§ 02

What this covers.

The statutory tests don't give a clean answer

The resides test, domicile test, 183-day test and Commonwealth superannuation test can each point a different way. Residency is decided on the weight of the whole picture - not a single box ticked.

Intention is weighed, not stated

The ATO looks at where your life actually is - family, home, employment, assets, social and economic ties - against what you say your intentions are. We document the position that the facts genuinely support.

The grey years cost the most

Part-year residency, a move that straddles 30 June, or a stint back in Australia mid-posting are where assessments most often go wrong - in both directions.

Recent case law has moved the line

Harding, Pike, Addy and the proposed bright-line reforms have all shifted how the tests are applied. A position that held five years ago may not hold today.

Host-country residency interacts

Dual residency, treaty tie-breaker rules and the day-count traps in your host country all feed back into the Australian answer. We coordinate both sides.

An undocumented position is a liability

If your residency was never properly analysed, you're exposed on every year it applied. A clear, reasoned position is what an ATO review tests for - and a formal written opinion (available for a separate agreed fee) is stronger still.

§ 03

How we help.

01 / 05

Full residency analysis

Your facts measured against the statutory tests, common law factors and current ATO guidance - reasoned, not asserted.

02 / 05

Optional written opinion

We don't automatically issue a written opinion or summary. Where you want a documented position - with the case law and reasoning - that you and your other advisors can rely on, we provide one for a separate fixed fee, quoted and agreed in advance.

03 / 05

Exit and re-entry dates

The defensible date you became - or ceased to be - an Australian tax resident, and what that means for the year it falls in.

04 / 05

Treaty tie-breaker positioning

Where dual residency arises, which country wins under the treaty, and the flow-on for each income source.

05 / 05

Private binding ruling support

Where the position is genuinely finely balanced, we prepare and argue a ruling application to lock in certainty.

The residency call was the whole ballgame for us. Having it properly analysed - before the ATO ever asked - changed every decision that followed.

Long-term expat client · Singapore · Residency determination

Settle the residency question.

Stop guessing at the one fact that drives your entire Australian tax position. A residency consultation gives you a clear, defensible answer you can build everything else around - with a formal written opinion available for a separate agreed fee.

Book a residency consultation