A Tax File Number costs nothing to obtain, and it normally arrives by post within 28 days of an application. An application can be made once the visa is granted, provided there is an Australian postal address for the letter.
What does the application depend on?
Three things, and all have to match. Your passport exactly as printed, including the spelling and date of birth, an Australian address the letter can be posted to, and an email address that will still work in a month.
No documents are uploaded. The ATO verifies the passport against immigration records electronically, which is why a transcription mismatch is the most common cause of an application failing. Our guide to TFN identity documents covers what the verification checks.
Which address should you give?
The one you will still be at in a month, not the one you are at today. The TFN arrives as a physical letter, and a returned letter restarts the process rather than being redirected.
A hostel address works if you are confident about staying. A hostel you leave in ten days does not, and a friend's address or a longer term share house is better even if you have not moved in yet. An address that stopped being yours is the most common reason a 28 day process turns into a two month one.
Can you start work before it arrives?
Yes, and this is where the money is decided. Your employer must withhold 45% rather than 15% until a TFN is on file, but a Tax File Number Declaration recording an application in progress keeps you on the working holiday rate through a 28 day window.
What matters is telling the employer on day one and completing the declaration accordingly. Say nothing and the 45% starts immediately. The difference on a $1,000 week is $300, every week, until it is corrected.
Any excess withheld comes back when the return is lodged. What is lost is the use of the money in between.
What happens once it arrives?
Every employer needs its own Tax File Number Declaration. A TFN given to one employer is not shared with another, and each payroll needs that declaration before it can apply the right rate.
The declaration also carries the residency question, which later decides your refund, and it is the field working holiday makers most often complete incorrectly. Our guide to the Tax File Number Declaration form covers what each box asks.
Is the number itself free?
Yes, because the opposite is often implied. The number is issued by the ATO at no charge, and we say the same on our TFN page.
Money is won and lost either side of it: the declaration form and the 28 day window on the way in, and the return that recovers over withheld tax on the way out.
What if it does not arrive?
The reference number from the confirmation email is what any follow up runs on, so keep it. If 28 days pass with nothing, the cause is almost always the address, and the second most common cause is a name or date of birth that did not match the passport.
An application that was rejected rather than delayed is a different problem, set out in our guide to a rejected TFN application.
How much would a delay cost you?
The application is the same for everyone. How much a delay costs you is not, and it comes down to points settled in your first week.
- Whether you had started work before applying, since the 45% period runs from the first pay rather than from the application.
- Whether you told the employer the application was in progress and it was recorded on the declaration.
- Whether the postal address will still be yours when the letter arrives.
- Whether your passport details were entered exactly as printed.
- Whether the employer is registered with the ATO as a working holiday maker employer, since an unregistered one withholds at foreign resident rates even after the TFN lands.
- How many employers you take on, because each needs its own declaration.
Anything over withheld during the wait is recovered through the working holiday tax return, and you can estimate your tax refund at any point in the year.