Quick answer
Yes, if you are leaving Australia permanently before 30 June and will earn no more Australian income that year, the ATO may accept your tax return early instead of after 1 July.
Who can lodge a tax return before 30 June?
Someone whose Australian tax year is genuinely over. The ATO accepts an early return from a foreign resident for tax purposes who is leaving Australia permanently, and from an Australian resident for tax purposes who leaves and stops being a resident. Either way, you must not receive any more Australian-sourced income after you leave, other than interest, dividends or royalties. Which of the two applies to you is the tax residency question, and it is worth settling first.
The ATO lists who has to lodge in the normal period of 1 July to 31 October instead:
- Anyone who is not leaving Australia permanently, such as someone going home between two working holiday visas
- Anyone who will receive other Australian-sourced income after leaving
- Anyone with a HELP, AASL or VET Student Loan debt
How is an early return lodged: paper form or tax agent?
There are two routes, and myTax is not one of them. If you lodge it yourself, the ATO says it has to be on the paper tax return form. You use the current individual tax return instructions, mark the year you are lodging for in bold on the front, and post the return to the address printed on the form. Your notice of assessment is posted to the address you write on the return, so give one that will still reach you after you have gone.
The other route is electronic lodgement by a registered tax agent. For a taxpayer leaving Australia permanently, the ATO accepts an early individual return lodged through practitioner software, but only up to a fixed date in June. Both routes need the same final figures, which is where the real work sits. Every working holiday tax return prepared by our team is reviewed and signed off by a registered tax agent before it is lodged with the ATO.
What is the latest date an early return can go in?
For electronic lodgement through a registered tax agent, 15 June. The ATO accepts these early returns up to and including 15 June of the financial year, or the Friday before if that date falls on a weekend when its systems are down for maintenance. After that, the return is lodged as normal from 1 July.
The ATO's guidance for people lodging on paper gives no separate cut-off date. What it does make clear is that the paper route is slow, so a return posted in late June gains little over one lodged online in July.
Why is pre-fill missing, and what replaces it?
Because the year has not finished. Pre-fill copies in what the ATO already holds, such as employer income statements and bank interest, and the ATO says it will generally not be available for an early return. Income for part of a year may not appear in pre-fill until the income year ends.
What replaces it is a final figure from each employer, and payslips do not count. In the ATO's words, "Payslips aren't sufficient as they may not contain final payment details." It asks for a payment summary from each employer, and where an employer reports through Single Touch Payroll, your income statement in myGov is the record to use. A last pay run that has not been finalised is exactly the kind of gap that turns an early return into an amendment.
How long does an early return take to process?
The ATO states 50 business days for early lodgements, which is about ten weeks and far longer than a normal return lodged online after 1 July. Lodging early brings the lodgement forward, not necessarily the result.
The ATO also says that someone in serious financial hardship can ask whether they are eligible for priority processing.
When is it better to wait until July?
More often than people expect. An early return suits a clean departure: one or two employers, final figures in hand, no plan to come back that year. Waiting is the safer choice when:
- An employer has not finalised your pay, or you are still owed a last payment
- There is a real chance you return and work in Australia again in the same financial year
- You had ABN or other non-wage income whose figures are not yet complete
- You hold a HELP, AASL or VET Student Loan debt, which rules early lodgement out anyway
Waiting does not mean flying back. After 1 July a return can be lodged online through myTax from overseas, as long as your myGov sign-in options still work abroad, or through a registered tax agent; lodging from overseas after 1 July covers what changes once you have gone.
What should you collect before you fly?
Whichever way you lodge, the things that are hard to get from abroad are worth gathering now:
- A payment summary or a finalised income statement from every employer for the year
- Your TFN, and the notice of assessment from any earlier Australian return, which the ATO asks for as proof of identity if you contact it about debts or earlier years
- myGov sign-in options that work from overseas, in case you end up lodging after 1 July
- An Australian bank account you will keep open
- A postal address that will reach you, for the notice of assessment
- Records for any deductions you plan to claim
If you worked as a contractor, cancel your ABN before you fly, effective from the date the work actually stopped.
Where does the refund go once you have left?
Into an Australian bank account, and nowhere else. The ATO pays refunds only into an Australian bank account, so keep yours open until the assessment has been issued and anything owed to you has cleared.
Whether a refund is due at all depends on your year. A working holiday maker's wages are withheld at a flat 15% up to $45,000, with no tax-free threshold, and an early return does not change the rates. A difference usually comes from a period at another rate, such as 45% before your TFN was on file. The return is also only one item on the list; what is still outstanding after you leave covers the rest.
Can you claim your super at the same time?
Not until you have left. The tax return and the super claim run on different clocks. A Departing Australia Superannuation Payment can only be claimed once you have left Australia and your temporary visa has expired or been cancelled, with no other Australian visa active. You can start and save the ATO's online application before you fly and submit it afterwards, and the eligibility checks, documents and timing are set out where you claim your super after leaving Australia.
The two never meet on the same form. The 65% withheld from a working holiday maker's super payment is final and does not go on your tax return. An Australian account kept open helps with both: the refund can only be paid there, and super that has already moved to the ATO is paid only to an Australian account in your name or by Australian dollar cheque.
What decides whether lodging early is right for you?
Lodging early suits some departures and not others. These are the points that decide it:
- Whether you are leaving Australia permanently, or might come back on another visa
- Whether every employer has finalised your pay, with figures you can show
- Whether you will receive any Australian-sourced income after leaving, other than interest, dividends or royalties
- Whether you have a HELP, AASL or VET Student Loan debt
- Whether it is still before 15 June, which keeps electronic lodgement through a registered tax agent available
- Whether 50 business days of processing suits you better than lodging online from overseas after 1 July
Lodged early or in the normal period, the year is settled through one working holiday tax return.