British passport holders
You have gone home. Your Australian tax has not.
Years you left open, a residency position only a British passport can use, and super that becomes claimable the moment you leave.
Replies in about an hour. Tell us the years you worked and we will tell you where you stand.
Doing it yourself
The residency position decides a British return.myGov has no field for it.
Four things on a British file are settled somewhere other than the form.
You will never log into myGov, link an ID, or work out which form is which. We deal with the ATO directly.
Can you still claim Australian tax back from the UK?
Yes. An Australian tax return can be prepared and lodged from anywhere, and leaving does not close a year or reduce what you are owed. The superannuation half can only be claimed after you have left and your visa has ceased, so being home is a requirement rather than an obstacle.
What is different about a British passport?
Four things about a UK passport change the answer.
Three years, not one
For applications lodged on or after 1 July 2024, UK passport holders can apply up to and including age 35, and can be granted up to three working holiday visas without completing any specified regional work. Three years usually means three or four Australian tax years.
The Addy decision is yours
The case that struck down the backpacker tax was brought by a British working holiday maker, and the UK sits on the ATO list of countries it applies to. Where it applies it restores the full tax free threshold and resident rates for those years.
Medicare runs the other way round
Every guide tells working holiday makers they are exempt from the 2 per cent Medicare levy. For a British traveller that is often the opposite of the truth, because of the Reciprocal Health Care Agreement between the UK and Australia.
Two tax years that never line up
The UK year runs 6 April to 5 April and the Australian year runs 1 July to 30 June. Arriving in February or leaving in September leaves an Australian year open that most people never think about again.
Do UK citizens pay the Medicare levy in Australia?
Often yes, and this is the one place where copying standard backpacker advice costs a British traveller rather than saves them. The UK has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia, so a British visitor can enrol in Medicare and is treated in a public hospital.
Being entitled to Medicare is what removes the 2 per cent exemption other working holiday makers claim, and claiming an exemption you are not entitled to is not a small paperwork error.
What decides it is residency, because the levy only applies to residents for tax purposes. More on how the levy works on our Medicare page.
What tax rate applies to a working holiday maker?
Working holiday maker rates apply to your Australian wages whether or not you are a resident for tax purposes, unless the Addy position above changes that.
Your employer had to be registered with the ATO as an employer of working holiday makers for the 15 per cent rate to apply. If not, they had to withhold at the foreign resident rate, which starts at 30 cents in the dollar from your first dollar.
That money is not gone, but it only comes back on a lodged return. Full breakdown on our tax return page.
What happens to your superannuation once you are home?
It sits there. Your employer paid 12 per cent of your ordinary earnings into a superannuation fund on top of your wages, never out of them, from your first dollar and with no minimum monthly amount. Since 1 July 2026 it also has to be paid with every pay run and reach the fund within seven business days, so an employer skipping it shows up in weeks rather than after a quarter.
After a long stay and several jobs you will usually have more than one fund account, each charging fees against a balance you are not watching. Once you have left and your visa has ceased it is claimed as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment, with 65 per cent withheld, so roughly a third of the balance reaches your account.
There is no deadline on the claim, and the five year limit you may have read about does not exist. More on our superannuation page.
Are you late, and does it matter?
Australian returns can be lodged from 1 July. The deadline without an agent is 31 October, and going through a tax agent usually extends that to 15 May the following year. Past both, the year is late rather than lost, and late returns are still lodged and still refunded.
What we do with a British file
Anyone can press submit. The work happens before that, and on a British file it is the two questions nobody else asks: which years are open, and which residency position is true for each.
- Work out which Australian tax years you have open, including the ones you left behind when you flew home.
- Take a position on your residency for tax purposes for each of those years, and apply the Addy decision where it applies.
- Check the Medicare levy against your real position rather than copying the exemption other backpackers claim.
- Chase down every employer income statement, including the ones you have forgotten, and check what each withheld.
- Find superannuation left in funds you no longer have the logins for, and claim it as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment once your visa has ceased.
None of that asks anything of you beyond the years you worked and what you can still lay hands on.
If you get a refund and it comes to less than our fee, we refund the difference. If you owe tax instead, the fee covers our review and is not refundable.
Working holiday tax is the only thing we do. Your return is reviewed and signed off by a registered tax agent before it is lodged with the ATO.
Replies in about an hour.
Questions British travellers ask
Do UK citizens pay the Medicare levy in Australia?
Often yes. The UK has a Reciprocal Health Care Agreement with Australia, so a UK passport holder can enrol in Medicare, and that entitlement is what removes the 2 per cent exemption other working holiday makers claim. The levy only applies to residents for tax purposes, so the answer depends on your residency position as well as your passport, and it is checked case by case.
I stayed three years. Do I need to lodge three tax returns?
Yes. The Australian tax year runs 1 July to 30 June, so a three year stay usually spans three or four separate tax years, each needing its own return. The most common pattern we see is somebody who lodged in their first year and then stopped, and those later years usually hold the most money because the earnings were highest.
How much superannuation will be waiting for me?
Your employer paid 12 per cent of your ordinary earnings into a superannuation fund on top of your wages, usually spread across more than one fund over a long stay. Once you have left and your visa has ceased it is claimed as a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment, with 65 per cent withheld, so roughly a third of the balance reaches you.
Is there a deadline, and am I already late?
A year past its deadline is late rather than lost. Late returns are still lodged and still refunded, and being late does not reduce what the year is worth.
Do I have to tell HMRC about my Australian income?
It depends on your UK residence position for the years involved, which is a separate question with its own rules. We deal with the Australian side and will say plainly where something belongs to a UK adviser.
Worth reading next
This is general information, not personal tax advice, and nothing here is advice on your UK tax position. Residency for Australian tax purposes depends on your own circumstances in each year, which is why British files are looked at individually.