Backpacker tax scenarios..

[saren]

It may seem like a silly question but just to be sure, non-residents (for tax purposes) have to pay 32% on income earned when traveling on WHV in Australia, so if you make $21/hour, at the end of the day you're actually making $14/hour, which doesn't seem very high anymore especially if you have expenses to pay, and are aiming to save your money. So my question is, do you as a backpacker get most of this 32% back, or is it eaten up automatically for being in Australia? Let's say you make $6000 gross throughout the duration of the WHV, $2000 will more/less be taken away, at the tax return, would most of it come back?

 

If not, it seems like being a resident (for tax purposes) is a much smarter move. When you filed your tax return, how did you answer the questions, about tax residency? Did you say you were a resident, or non-resident? And how did it go? Did you pay the full tax (32%), or did you get the break ($16).

[digitalis]

Will send you a PM later about this. Nice to see someone with a bit of life experience posting for a change.