An ABN should be cancelled when you stop contracting, not when you happen to remember. There is no fee, and cancellation takes effect from the date you specify rather than the date it is filed.
Why does an open ABN matter after you have gone?
Because the ABN is a registration with ongoing obligations, not a certificate you earned. While it is active the ATO can reasonably expect activity statements and returns, and where you registered for GST it will expect a BAS whether or not you invoiced anything.
Correspondence keeps going to whatever Australian address is on file, which for most backpackers is a hostel they left months earlier. Nothing gets forwarded, notices go unanswered, and the first you hear is when something has escalated. An open registration with an untended address is also a soft target for identity fraud.
What has to be finished before you cancel?
Everything that runs through the ABN, because cancelling closes the registration rather than the obligations attached to it.
- Issue every outstanding invoice while the ABN is still active
- Collect payments you are owed, since chasing them from overseas is harder
- Lodge any BAS due if you were registered for GST, and cancel that registration separately
- Note the ABN income earned to the cancellation date, which still belongs in your return
- Keep the records for the deductions you intend to claim against that income
The GST registration is the one people forget. Cancelling the ABN does not automatically end it in every case, and a live GST registration generates quarterly obligations of its own.
Does cancelling remove your obligation to lodge?
No. Cancelling ends the registration going forward. Income already earned under it remains assessable, and the return covering that year still has to be lodged.
If the financial year has not ended when you leave, the return is lodged after 1 July from wherever you are. Our guide to lodging from overseas covers what that needs, and the short answer is an open Australian bank account.
Which date should you choose?
The date you actually stopped the activity, not today's date. A backpacker who last invoiced in March and remembers to cancel in June should cancel effective March.
The date defines the period the ATO regards you as carrying on an enterprise. A cancellation dated later than the real end suggests months of activity that produced no income and no reporting, which is the pattern that generates queries.
Should you keep it open in case you come back?
Almost never. The number stays associated with you and can be reactivated if you return and start contracting again, so keeping it live buys nothing and costs continuing lodgement expectations for years in which you were not in the country.
Is there anything else to close on the way out?
Superannuation, though it works the other way around. ABN contracting generally produces no super, because contractors are not paid the guarantee, but most working holiday makers also had employment alongside it and that employment did.
Super can only be claimed once your visa has ceased and you have left Australia. A DASP claim is typically approved within about 28 days, and the taxable component is taxed at 65% for working holiday makers. Our superannuation guide covers the timing, which cannot be undone once claimed.
Settle these before the cancellation date.
What needs to happen around a cancellation depends on how the ABN was used.
- Whether you were registered for GST, which is a separate registration with its own final BAS.
- Whether invoices are still outstanding, since collecting after cancellation is harder.
- What date the activity genuinely ended, which is the date to use rather than today's.
- Whether the financial year has closed, which decides when the final return can be lodged.
- Whether you also had employment income, since that is where the super and the withholding sit.
- Whether you intend to return to Australia, though this is rarely a reason to leave it open.
The final ABN income is declared in the working holiday tax return alongside any wages, and you can estimate your tax refund to see whether that year lands as a refund or an amount owing.