Working holiday visas 417 & 462
The number is free. The weeks without it are not.
Until your employer has the number, 45% of your pay is withheld instead of 15%.
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What does it cost to start work before your TFN arrives?
If your employer does not have your TFN within 28 days, they must withhold 45% instead of the 15% Working Holiday Maker rate. The extra tax is not lost and may come back when you lodge your tax return after 30 June.
45%
Withheld from every dollar while no TFN is on file, instead of fifteen.
28 days
To give your employer your TFN, and for the ATO to issue it.
1 return
The only route back for anything already withheld at the wrong rate.
Doing it yourself
Why do working holiday TFN applications fail?
The form is short. Each of the three ways it goes wrong can mean another month taxed at 45%.
The name on the form is not the name immigration holds
The ATO matches your application against your visa record. A missing middle name, a renewed passport or names in a different order can send it back.
The address will not be holding your post in four weeks
Your TFN arrives as a letter to an Australian address, and issuing can take up to 28 days. If you have moved on, nobody forwards it.
It was lodged before the visa was active
You apply once you are in Australia on an activated visa, not before you fly. Applications lodged too early go nowhere, and you find out weeks later at 45%.
The work
What we do about it
You send us your details on WhatsApp. Everything below happens on our side.
We check your visa is active first
A one minute question that stops the most common wasted month.
We match your details to your immigration record
Passport, name order, date of birth and visa grant, checked against each other before lodging.
We work out the address problem with you
Where you will be in four weeks, and what to do if the answer is a farm or a van.
We chase it if it stalls
The ATO has 28 days. Past that, someone has to ring them, and it will not be you.
We tell your employer what to do in the meantime
A TFN application reference number, quoted correctly, keeps the first pay runs off the top rate.
We claim the gap back at the end of the year
Anything already withheld at 45% only comes back through a tax return, and only if the return says so.
You will never log into myGov, link an ID, or work out which form is which. We deal with the ATO directly.
Already have the number and want the weeks at 45% back? That is the tax return.
Our guarantee
If your refund is less than our fee, we refund the difference, so you are never out of pocket.
The fee is flat and never a percentage of what comes back.
Tell us where you are up to
Whether you have landed, whether you have started a job, and whether anything has already been paid at 45%. Three answers and we can tell you what to do next.
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Working holiday tax is the only thing we do.
Every TFN application we lodge belongs to somebody on a 417 or 462 visa. Returns are reviewed and signed off by a registered tax agent before they are lodged with the ATO.
TFN questions people ask before they message us
Can I just apply for a TFN myself?
You can, and the application is a short free form.
What we charge for is the work around it: matching your details to the record immigration holds, picking an address still receiving post in four weeks, and giving your employer the reference number so the first pay runs are not withheld at 45%.
The TFN application is free on the ATO website. What am I paying for?
The number itself is free. What costs money is the gap: every pay run before your employer has the number is withheld at 45% instead of 15%. We charge for closing that gap, and for getting back what has already gone.
What actually happens if I start work without a TFN?
Your employer must withhold at 45% instead of the 15% working holiday maker rate until you give them a tax file number, and you have 28 days from starting the job. On a $25 an hour job that is roughly $7.50 an hour going to the ATO instead of you.
The money is not lost, but it only comes back through a tax return lodged correctly after the financial year ends.
I have already been working for weeks without a TFN. Is it too late?
No. Apply now so the top rate stops applying to future pay. The excess already withheld comes back when your tax return is lodged for that financial year.
We can usually have an application ready the same day you message us. Tell us how many weeks have already been paid at 45%, because it changes what your return needs to say.
How long does a TFN take to arrive?
The ATO states it processes TFN applications within 28 days, and most working holiday makers have theirs inside two to four weeks. It arrives as a letter to the Australian address on the application. While you wait, your employer needs the application reference number.
Can I apply for a TFN before I arrive in Australia?
Not on a working holiday visa. You apply once you are in Australia with your 417 or 462 visa activated, because the application is matched against your arrival and visa record. You also need an Australian postal address for the letter.
Do I need a new TFN for a second year visa?
No. A tax file number is issued once and stays with you for life, across a second or third working holiday visa, a change of visa class, and any gap where you left Australia.
If you have lost the number rather than never had one, that is a different and faster problem, so tell us which it is.
Guides
More on the TFN and the 45% weeks
The weeks at 45% come back through a return
Once the number is on file, the tax return is what claims the excess back.
How the return works →