Working holiday visas 417 & 462
Your details and where to deposit your refund. We take it from there.
No payslips, no myGov account, no form to decipher. One questionnaire, one signature, and the refund usually follows about 14 business days after lodgement.
Replies in about an hour.
Your side of it
What we need from you
Three things, and that is the list.
Your passport and visa
Which passport you hold and which subclass you were on.
An Australian bank account
The ATO pays refunds into an Australian account only. If yours is already closed, say so at the start.
Roughly where and when you worked
A town, the kind of work, rough months. We match it against the ATO record and fill in the rest.
You do not need payslips.
Every employer who put you on a payroll has already reported an income statement against your tax file number, and that is what a return is built from. Receipts for work expenses are the one thing worth looking for, and if there are none, tell us what the work involved instead.
Start to finish
The order it happens in
Seven steps. You appear in two of them, at the start and again to sign.
You message us
WhatsApp, in English, German or Japanese. You tell us what the year looked like, we tell you where you stand, and the fee is agreed before any work begins.
One questionnaire, about ten minutes
Passport and visa details, bank details, the towns and the kind of work. It is the only form you fill in. Leave anything that does not apply and we will ask.
We open your ATO record
Every employer who reported you, every income statement, every dollar withheld, and any earlier year still open. Forgotten jobs and weeks taxed at the top rate surface here, not in what you remember.
The judgements that move the number
Residency for the year, the weeks withheld before your tax file number arrived, whether the Medicare levy was ever yours to pay, and what your line of work can claim. This is the slow part, and the part you are paying for.
You read it and sign
We send you the finished return with each figure explained, and nothing goes to the ATO until you have read it and signed the declaration. Signing is electronic, so it works from a phone in another hemisphere.
It is lodged
Reviewed and signed off by a registered tax agent before it is lodged with the ATO. Lodgement itself takes minutes.
The ATO pays
Refunds usually land about 14 business days after lodgement, into the Australian account you gave us. If the ATO queries something, we answer it and tell you what was asked.
More on step 04: what an ABN changes if any of your income was invoiced rather than paid through a payroll.
Two rules change the order you do this in
The refund can only go to an Australian account
Superannuation (DASP) can be paid to an overseas account. A tax refund cannot. If you are about to close your Australian bank account, wait until the refund has landed, or tell us first.
Earlier years are still claimable
A financial year you never lodged for does not expire quietly. Each year is its own return and its own refund, and we work through them oldest first.
Our guarantee
If your refund is less than our fee, we refund the difference, so you are never out of pocket.
Nothing is ever taken out of what the ATO sends you. The amount is settled with you on WhatsApp before step 01.
Start with a message, not a form
Send the towns you worked in, roughly which months, and whether you ever invoiced under an ABN. That is enough to say which years are open and what your side looks like. Two years since you flew home makes no difference.
Message us on WhatsAppReplies in about an hour.
Working holiday tax is the only thing we do.
The questionnaire, the checks and the order above were built around one visa year and nothing else. Reviewed and signed off by a registered tax agent before it is lodged with the ATO.
Nobody legitimate will ask you for your myGov password. We never ask for it, because the lodgement route above does not use it. If a message asks for those details, it did not come from us.
What people ask before they send anything
How long does a working holiday tax return take?
From the day your questionnaire is in, a straightforward year takes a few days to prepare and check, and the ATO usually pays the refund about 14 business days after lodgement.
Five employers, income invoiced under an ABN, or a residency position that has to be argued takes longer at our end, and we tell you which yours is.
Do you need my payslips?
No. Every employer who paid you through a payroll reported an income statement to the ATO, and that record is what a return is built from. Lost payslips and an employer who has shut down are normal starting points.
The only paperwork worth digging out is receipts for work expenses. If you do not have those, describe the work and we will tell you what is claimable without them.
What do I actually have to do?
Three things. Answer the questionnaire once, read the return we send back, and sign it. There is no government account to set up and no ATO form to interpret, because the lodgement happens through us.
Can you lodge for me after I have already left Australia?
Yes, and many of the returns we lodge belong to people already home in the UK, Germany or Japan. The questionnaire, the signature and the lodgement are all online.
The refund itself does not travel: the ATO can only pay it into an Australian bank account, while superannuation (DASP) can be paid overseas. If your Australian account is already closed, tell us in the first message.
What if I never lodged for an earlier year?
It can still be lodged now. Each financial year stands on its own, with its own return and its own refund, and the ATO record shows which years are still open.
In most working holiday years the balance is owed to you rather than by you.
What happens if the return says I owe money instead?
Occasionally it does, most often where income was invoiced under an ABN and nothing was withheld.
You see that figure before anything is lodged, with an explanation of where it came from and what the ATO payment options are. Nothing is sent without your signature.
Guides
The longer version of the hard steps
Do not leave your super behind
Your employer paid superannuation on top of your wages while you worked here. When you leave Australia for good it can be claimed, separately from the return.
How the super claim works →