Singapore/Australia Double Tax agreement

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Dear Brains Trust,

Wanting to find out if there are any Aussies here that can shed light on what
happens if you remain tax resident in both Singapore and Australia.

I'm understanding that from the tax treaty between Singapore and Australia, that
Singapore gets first "dibs" in taxing us if we are employees within Singapore, and that
whatever we get taxed, we can apply for tax credit on the Australian side with ATO.

Last Australian financial year is from 1st July 2018 to 30th June 2019.

As a permanent resident of Singapore between 1st July and 31st December I earned 15k, of which I was not taxed.

For 1st Jan 2019 to 30th June, I earned another 35k gross, of which IRAS has not taxed me YET, again as a permanent resident

I'm now required to do a tax return for Australia based on the 50k income from Singapore.

How do you calculate the tax credit?

Is it based on ACTUAL tax paid... (to date, so far zero)

Is it based on some algorithm? or some percentage?

Thanks in advance...


And before you say it,.. yes , i know it's a question for an accountant.

And second, I don't want to discuss the answer over phone.

[tiktok]

I believe you can only be a tax resident of one country at any point in time, and that's the one you pay tax to. USA excepted. Usually it's where you spend the majority of the year. Sorry I don't have specific Aus knowledge though.

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I believe you can only be a tax resident of one country at any point in time, and that's the one you pay tax to. USA excepted. Usually it's where you spend the majority of the year. Sorry I don't have specific Aus knowledge though.

Australia is a bit different. They want a piece of everyone's tax pie.

[Pal]

Splatted?

Hello!!! Welcome back!!!

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Hello!!! Welcome back!!!

Thankyou thankyou

[sundaymorningstaple]

Welcome back!

[PNGMK]

Why would you remain tax resident of both? Honestly for that sort of peanuts I would not have reported it as the ATO doesn't have auto access to bank details in Singapore but I assume you've been caught out or somehow think you might be.

Anyways you'd use actual tax paid on the income in each country by the authority in each country as deduction on the other countries tax bill. What is your Australian income situation? High enough to put you into a bracket?

What I'd do here I think is put off the Australian reporting until the Singapore tax is paid - you can explain to the ATO why you want a deferral.

Don't forget in this situation you may owe IRAS taxes for any Australian income as well! This is why professional expats become non tax resident of their home country if possible and tax resident in a low tax country like Dubai or HK or SINGAPORE.

[Splatted]

Welcome back!

Thanks sundaymorningstaple

[Splatted]

Why would you remain tax resident of both? Honestly for that sort of peanuts I would not have reported it as the ATO doesn't have auto access to bank details in Singapore but I assume you've been caught out or somehow think you might be.

Not exactly "caught". It's more of a case where Australia had changed it's normal forms for renewing Resident Return Visa, which we annually renew for my wife. RRV is Australia's equivalent to Singapore's re-entry permit for PRs.

In the updated form, they ask for identifiers eg NRIC, foreign drivers licence, which I can only presume lets them cross-reference or compare notes with IRAS on income.

But you are right. It turns out after using the web tool on ATO website, we are considered non tax residents of Australia.

What I was investigating was whether we needed to actually go down this path, or is it much of a muchness remaining tax residents both sides.

We had a lot of issues renewing my wife's RRV last year, and waited several months compared to the usually 3 days. So I'm hesitant to do anything that makes us look less connected to Australia, when I spent so much time last year trying to prove "significant ties".

[PNGMK]

You cannot renew an Australia RRV indefinitely without being in Austrlaia. I believe you timeout at 10 years. That's really the issue. She needs to resume her residency - there are specific rules around this including calculations of contiguous stays during the period of the RRV. Your issue is not tax related at all but immigration related I suspect.