Moving to Australia to Start a Business: Getting the Tax Side Right

So you’re thinking of moving to Australia and building a business here. Good instinct. It’s a stable, prosperous, rule-of-law sort of place with a healthy appetite for new ventures, and the lifestyle isn’t bad either. But before you start picturing the harbour views, there’s some unglamorous groundwork to do, and getting it right early is the difference between a smooth landing and an expensive scramble.

The thing to understand up front is that “move to Australia and start a business” is really three separate problems wearing a single trench coat. There’s the visa question, the business-law question, and the tax question. They’re related, but they’re handled by different experts, and the most expensive mistakes happen when people assume one professional covers all three.

Three different problems, three different experts

Let’s be honest about who does what, including us.

We’re registered tax agents and chartered accountants. The tax side is our lane, and it’s the part of this article where we can speak with authority. The visa side is immigration law, and immigration assistance in Australia is regulated work. It should come from a registered migration agent, an Australian legal practitioner, or another person who is legally exempt. We can sketch the landscape, but we’re not your visa adviser. That isn’t modesty, it’s the law. The business-law side (company registration, employment obligations, licences, insurance) is largely a matter for the government’s own resources and, where it gets complex, a commercial lawyer. Knowing which question you’re asking, and who to ask, is half the battle.

The visa landscape has changed, so check it properly

This is the part where old articles will lead you cheerfully into a wall, so pay attention. For years, the familiar business migration options were the Business Innovation and Investment visa (subclass 188) and the Business Talent visa (subclass 132), the ones with the well-known thresholds around business turnover, net assets and investment capital.

Those pathways are no longer open to new applicants. The Business Talent visa (subclass 132) closed to new applications on 1 July 2021. The Business Innovation and Investment Program, including the subclass 188 streams, closed permanently to new applications on 31 July 2024, although applications lodged before closure continue to be processed. If a website is still cheerfully telling you to apply for a 188 or 132, it’s out of date.

In their place, the government’s headline pathway for certain exceptional applicants is now the National Innovation visa (subclass 858). But don’t treat it as a simple swap for the old business program. It’s permanent, it’s invitation-only, and it’s aimed at people with an internationally recognised record of exceptional and outstanding achievement: established and emerging leaders, entrepreneurs, innovative investors, and the like. In plain English, this isn’t the “I’ve got a solid café idea” visa. It’s a much sharper instrument. Other pathways (skilled and employer-sponsored visas among them) may be more relevant depending on your situation.

Because this area keeps moving and the advice is regulated, do not rely on a blog (including this one) for your visa decision. Check the Department of Home Affairs for the current options, and engage a registered migration agent or Australian legal practitioner to map your actual eligibility. Get this layer right first, because your visa type feeds directly into your tax position, as you’ll see in a moment.

Business law and structure: where to read up

On the general business-law front, the single best starting point is the government’s own business.gov.au, which walks through business structures, registrations, trademarks, your obligations as an employer, compulsory insurances, licences and the rest. It’s genuinely good, and it’ll save you from a lot of nasty surprises.

One thing worth flagging before you pick a structure, though: the structure you choose isn’t just a legal decision, it’s a tax decision, and often a big one. And if you set up an Australian company, remember the director ID. All company directors need one, and you generally need to apply before you’re appointed. It isn’t exciting. Neither is a penalty notice. Which brings us neatly to our actual area.

The big tax question: will you be an Australian tax resident?

Here’s where it starts to matter for your wallet. Australia taxes people based on their tax residency, which is a question of fact, not simply a matter of which visa you hold or what your passport says. The ATO works through a set of tests (the main one being whether you genuinely “reside” here, supported by a domicile test, a 183-day test and a Commonwealth super test), and the current guidance sits in Taxation Ruling TR 2023/1. We explain how it all works in our guide to becoming an Australian resident for tax purposes.

Why it matters so much: an Australian tax resident is generally taxed on their worldwide income, while someone who isn’t a resident is taxed only on Australian-sourced income and on gains from taxable Australian property. So the question “am I a resident?” determines whether your overseas income and assets are in the Australian tax net at all. For someone arriving with foreign businesses, investments or income streams, that’s not a footnote. It’s the whole ballgame.

The temporary resident concessions: a genuine sweet spot

Now for a piece of good news that a surprising number of new arrivals miss entirely. If you move to Australia on an eligible temporary visa and meet the conditions, you may qualify as a “temporary resident” for tax purposes, and the tax law gives temporary residents a notably generous deal.

Temporary resident has a specific tax definition, though. Broadly, you need to hold a temporary visa under the Migration Act, not be an Australian resident within the meaning of the Social Security Act 1991, and not have a spouse who is an Australian resident under that Act. That spouse condition catches people. Tax law does enjoy hiding a rake under the welcome mat. (One more trap: someone who has been an Australian resident for tax purposes since after 6 April 2006 without being a temporary resident generally can’t later turn into one, even if they pick up a temporary visa down the track.)

Broadly, under Subdivision 768-R of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, most foreign-source income of a temporary resident is treated as non-assessable non-exempt, and capital gains on most non-taxable-Australian-property assets are disregarded. That’s a very good deal by tax standards, which is a low bar, but still a bar.

But don’t get cute with the word “foreign.” If you’re sitting in Australia doing the work, providing the services, running the business or directing the activity, the income may be Australian-source, or employment and services income that falls outside the concession, regardless of where the client, the bank account or the invoice sits. A foreign client does not automatically make the income foreign. The ATO has met laptops before. There are also special rules for employee share schemes and other employment-related amounts. So yes, the concession is valuable. No, it isn’t a forcefield.

This is exactly why your visa type and your tax position are joined at the hip, and why it’s worth advice before you arrive rather than after. The concession is valuable, the eligibility is specific, and the moment your status changes (say, you transition to permanent residency), the picture changes with it. Plan for that transition rather than being ambushed by it.

Arriving with foreign assets? Get valuations

If you arrive with foreign shares, crypto, founder equity, options, foreign property or a business interest, get proper valuations at the relevant dates. This isn’t admin fluff. It can decide the future Australian CGT bill.

When you become an Australian tax resident, other than as a temporary resident, you’re generally taken to have acquired many of your non-taxable-Australian-property CGT assets at their market value on that day. And if you first qualify as a temporary resident and later become a permanent resident while staying in Australia, a similar market-value reset can apply when you cease being a temporary resident.

Translation: the day you arrive, and the day your status changes, can both become tax valuation days. Future you will not remember what a private company shareholding was worth on a Tuesday in 2026. Future you is busy. Get the records while the facts are still fresh.

If you already have an overseas company, pause before running it from Australia

A lot of founders don’t start from scratch. They arrive with an existing foreign company and assume it stays foreign because the incorporation paperwork says so. Lovely thought. Not enough.

If you run the company from Australia, make the high-level decisions from Australia, sign the contracts from Australia, or move the real management here, Australia may start asking whether the company is now an Australian tax resident, has Australian-source income, or is carrying on business here. The company residency rules turn on central management and control (the ATO’s view is set out in Taxation Ruling TR 2018/5), and they matter.

Crucially, the temporary resident concession is an individual concession. It does not magically wrap every company, trust or structure you brought over in your carry-on luggage. Before you operate an offshore company from Australia, get advice. This is exactly the kind of thing that looks tidy until someone opens the drawer.

Choosing a business structure: the tax angle

When you set up your venture, you’ll choose a structure, typically a sole trader, a partnership, a company or a trust, and each is taxed quite differently. A sole trader is taxed at your personal marginal rates. A company is a separate taxpayer with its own rate (currently 25% for a base rate entity, broadly one with aggregated turnover under $50 million and largely active income, and 30% otherwise). Trusts have their own rules again, often flowing income through to beneficiaries.

One warning for consultants, contractors and specialist founders: the personal services income rules can bite. If the income is mainly a reward for your personal labour, skills or expertise, simply running it through a company or trust doesn’t automatically turn it into business profit you can split around the family or park at company rates. The PSI rules are tax law’s way of asking, politely, “nice try, but whose work was it really?”

There’s no single “best” structure. The right answer depends on your risk profile, how you’ll draw money out, whether you have partners or investors, your plans for growth, and how it all interacts with your residency position and any home-country tax. This is genuinely worth proper advice before you commit, because unwinding the wrong structure later is far more painful and expensive than choosing well at the start. Pick in haste, repent through several tax returns.

The tax registrations you’ll actually need

Once you’re up and running, the registration list isn’t glamorous, but it’s where a lot of new businesses quietly come unstuck. In rough order:

• A Tax File Number (TFN). Individuals have their own; companies, trusts and partnerships usually need their own entity TFN.
• An Australian Business Number (ABN), so the business can identify itself when dealing with the ATO, customers and suppliers.
• If you operate through a company, company registration with ASIC, an ACN, and director IDs for the directors.
• GST registration, generally compulsory once your GST turnover reaches $75,000. That isn’t just last year’s sales: you test current and projected 12-month GST turnover. You can register voluntarily below the threshold, and once registered you generally charge GST on taxable sales and claim GST credits on eligible purchases, reporting through a Business Activity Statement.
• PAYG withholding if you’ll be paying employees, directors or certain other workers. Register before the first payment you need to withhold from, not when you finally get around to tidying the payroll drawer.
• Single Touch Payroll reporting, since employers generally report salary and wages, PAYG withholding and super information to the ATO through payroll software each time employees are paid.
• Superannuation guarantee for eligible employees (and some contractors paid mainly for their labour), currently 12% of ordinary time earnings since 1 July 2025. Note a big change coming: from 1 July 2026, “Payday Super” means super must generally be paid on payday and reach the employee’s fund within seven business days. That puts your cash-flow planning under a megaphone, so build it in early.
• Payroll tax, if your Australia-wide wages exceed the threshold in a state or territory where you have workers. This one is state-based, the thresholds vary, and contractors can sometimes count. Because apparently one payroll system wasn’t enough.
• Fringe benefits tax if you provide taxable benefits like a car, housing or school fees to employees, directors or their associates. Sole traders and partners aren’t employees of themselves for FBT, but company directors very much can be in the zone.

None of this is exotic, but it adds up, and the order matters. The businesses that struggle are usually the ones that treated registrations and record-keeping as an afterthought rather than part of the setup.

Keep good records from day one

Last, the least glamorous and most important habit: keep clean, organised records from the very beginning. Australia runs a self-assessment tax system, which is a polite way of saying the responsibility sits with you to get it right and to be able to back it up. For a temporary resident especially, keeping income clearly separated by source and date is what lets you correctly apply the concessions above without over-reporting and paying tax you didn’t owe. Good records aren’t bureaucratic box-ticking; they’re how you keep more of your own money, legitimately.

The bottom line

Moving to Australia to start a business is a thoroughly achievable plan, but it’s three jobs, not one. Sort the visa with a registered migration agent or Australian legal practitioner. Read up on the business-law basics at business.gov.au and get a commercial lawyer where it’s complex. Then nail down the tax side (your residency, any temporary-resident concessions, foreign assets, any offshore company, your structure, PSI, and the registrations) with a registered tax agent who works with new arrivals.

The biggest savings are usually made before arrival, not after. That’s when you can value assets cleanly, structure sensibly, avoid accidentally dragging a foreign company into the Australian tax net, and have the registrations ready before the first invoice or payroll run. Do those three jobs in the right order, with the right people, and you arrive with your foundations already poured. Wing it, and your first Australian year becomes a scenic tour of forms, penalties and corrective advice. Lovely country. Less lovely experienced through ATO correspondence.

Planning a move to Australia?

The tax side is what we do. We’re Australian chartered accountants and registered tax agents who work with people moving to Australia from all over the world, and we can help you work out your residency position, whether you’ll qualify for the temporary resident concessions, what to value and when, the most sensible structure for your business, and the registrations you’ll need, ideally before you arrive, so it’s all in place when you land. We can also point you to migration agents and other professionals we’ve worked with when you need them, and our fee is always an upfront quote.

Book an appointment with our team today, ideally before you make the move. Sort it now, thank yourself later.

General information only. This article is general background for people considering a move to Australia; it isn’t tax, financial, legal or migration advice, and it doesn’t consider your personal circumstances. We’re registered tax agents and chartered accountants, not registered migration agents or lawyers, and immigration assistance in Australia is regulated and should be obtained from a registered migration agent, an Australian legal practitioner or another exempt person. Visa, business and tax rules and figures change regularly, so confirm the current position with the relevant authority. For your Australian tax position, speak to our specialist team today, or to another registered tax agent, before acting.