No. Moving your own money out of Australia is not a taxable event. Wages are taxed when you earn them, not when you spend or transfer them, so an after tax balance can leave the country freely.
Why is a transfer not taxed?
Tax attaches to income, and a transfer is not income. Sending Australian dollars to an account in your own name at home, converting currency, or moving savings you brought in with you all move money that has already been through the tax system or was never in it.
What the ATO taxes is what you earned here: wages at the working holiday maker rates, contractor income under an ABN, tips, interest on an Australian account, and cash work, which is taxable whether or not it appeared on a payslip. Once the tax return has settled that, the balance is your business.
What is actually reported when you send money home?
Two reporting rules exist and neither creates a liability. Banks and money transfer services report international transfers to AUSTRAC, generally at $10,000 or more, automatically and without any action from you. Physical cash of $10,000 or more crossing the border must be declared to the Australian Border Force.
Both are anti money laundering measures. Visibility is not taxation, and honest wage money moves without difficulty. What is an offence is deliberately splitting a transfer to stay under the reporting threshold. That is called structuring, and it is treated far more seriously than the transfer would have been.
Will you be taxed again at home?
That depends on your own country's rules rather than Australia's. Most of the countries working holiday makers come from have a double tax agreement with Australia, which generally lets Australian tax already paid be credited against any home liability on the same income.
The treatment varies more than people expect. Some countries treat a year of Australian working holiday earnings as ordinary foreign income and want it declared; others largely disregard it. A tax adviser in your own country is the right person for that half.
What order should you do things in before you fly?
The order matters more than the tax treatment does, because two payments arrive after you have gone. Both your tax refund and your DASP super payment are paid into a nominated account weeks or months after lodgement, so the account has to still exist when they land.
- Lodge the Australian tax return for your final year
- Apply for the superannuation payment through DASP
- Cancel any ABN you registered
- Wait for the refund and the super payment to arrive
- Transfer the balance home
- Close the Australian account last
Closing the bank account early is the most common and most expensive mistake we see. The money is not lost, but recovering it means re-establishing payment details with the ATO or a super fund from overseas, which turns a two week wait into a several month one.
What decides how much actually arrives at the other end?
Not tax, but the exchange rate and the fee, and the two are often presented so the worse deal looks cheaper. A bank quoting a low flat fee frequently builds a wider margin into the rate itself, so on a four figure transfer the headline fee is the smaller half of what you pay.
Compare on the amount that lands in your home account, not on the fee. That is the only number that means anything.
Does money you brought into Australia change anything?
No. Savings you arrived with are yours, bringing them in was not income, and taking them out again is not a taxable event either. The Australian system only ever looks at what you earned while you were here.
If you brought in a large sum and want to send it back out, the transfer is reported at the usual thresholds and there is nothing to answer for. Keeping the original bank statement to show where the money came from is worth the two minutes.
What still ties you to Australia after the money has gone?
Moving your funds home settles nothing with the ATO. The obligation to lodge for your final Australian financial year is independent of where the money sits, and it runs to 31 October after the year ends whether or not you are still in the country. Our guide to tax after leaving Australia covers what is still outstanding once you have gone.
A year that ends part way through, in December or February, is a year where too much was withheld against the income actually earned, and that overpayment only comes back if someone claims it.