Tax back is the amount withheld from your pay above what you actually owed, recovered by lodging a tax return after 30 June, or earlier if you leave Australia permanently. Your correct liability is 15% on the first $45,000.
Why is there anything to claim back at all?
Because withholding is an estimate applied pay by pay, while your actual liability is calculated once, at the end of the year, on the whole picture. The two only match if nothing unusual happened, and for working holiday makers something unusual usually did.
The gap runs in one direction. An Australian resident's withholding is calculated against a scale designed to land near zero. A working holiday maker's is flat, and every error in it, a missing TFN, an unregistered employer, an early departure, means too much was taken rather than too little.
Which parts of your year create the refund?
Five specific things, each a fact about your own circumstances rather than a general entitlement.
- A period at 45%. Any weeks before your TFN reached the employer were withheld at 45% instead of 15%, and the whole difference comes back.
- An employer not registered as a working holiday maker employer. They must withhold at foreign resident rates, currently 30%, and that excess is recoverable in full. Common on farms and with small businesses.
- The Medicare levy exemption. Most 417 and 462 holders are not entitled to Medicare and can remove the 2% levy, but it needs a Medicare Entitlement Statement from Services Australia rather than a tick box.
- Work related deductions. Tools, compulsory uniforms and their laundry, sun protection for outdoor work, RSA and White Card courses, and travel between two workplaces on the same day.
- Leaving part way through the year. Withholding assumes the income continues, so a departure in January generally leaves more withheld than was ever due.
How much should you expect?
Nobody can tell you before seeing what was withheld, and anyone who quotes a figure without that is guessing at your expense. The arithmetic is simple once the numbers exist: total tax withheld, minus 15% of income up to $45,000, plus the levy exemption and any deductions.
The size of your refund is decided by how wrong your withholding was, not by how much you earned. Someone who earned $40,000 with correct withholding all year has less to reclaim than someone who earned $20,000 with six weeks at 45%. Our tax refund calculator does the same sum if you have the payslip totals.
When and how do you lodge?
The Australian tax year runs 1 July to 30 June, self lodgement is due by 31 October, and lodging through a registered agent extends that into the following May. Start mid July rather than 1 July, because income statements are not final until employers complete their reporting.
Lodging your own return is free. What it does not settle is the two items that move the number most: the residency position, which depends on your circumstances and has to be properly reviewed, and the Medicare levy exemption, which needs a Medicare Entitlement Statement ordered weeks ahead rather than a tick box. An agent fee is itself deductible on the following year's return. From overseas the obstacles are identity verification and an open Australian bank account, neither a tax problem. Refunds are usually paid about 14 business days after lodgement, and longer through the July to September peak.
Can you claim for years you have already left?
Yes. There is no cut off for lodging a late return, and unclaimed refunds from earlier working holiday years are recovered regularly, including by people who left Australia years ago and assumed the money had gone.
Two things before you assume it is free of consequence. A late return can attract a Failure to Lodge penalty even when a refund is owed, and while the ATO applies that selectively, a pattern of several unlodged years is where it does get applied. And the income statements still exist in ATO systems regardless of what you kept, so missing paperwork is not the obstacle it feels like. Our guide on late lodgement and the penalty rules covers where the line falls.
What about your super?
A separate claim, and often the larger one. Your employers paid 12% of your ordinary earnings into a super fund throughout the year, and none of that is part of your tax refund.
The Departing Australia Superannuation Payment becomes available once you have left and your visa has ceased, and it pays out the balance less 65% withholding on the taxable component. Two people with identical tax refunds can have very different amounts waiting, depending on how much they earned and how many funds it was split between. It is the money most commonly left behind.