Moving from New Zealand to Brisbane: your first Australian tax year

Your visa and your tax residency are separate questions

When you arrive on a New Zealand passport you are granted a special category visa. It lets you stay while you remain a New Zealand citizen. The ATO does not use Home Affairs rules to decide tax residency, so the visa on its own tells you very little about how you will be taxed.

Two labels matter. The first is whether you are an Australian resident for tax purposes. The second is whether you are also a temporary resident. Most New Zealanders who move here are both at once, and that combination keeps most of their New Zealand income out of their Australian return.

Becoming an Australian resident for tax

The main test is whether you reside in Australia in the ordinary sense of the word. The ATO looks at your presence, intentions, family, work, assets and living arrangements. If you move to Brisbane with a job, a lease and no plan to go back, you will usually be resident from the day you arrive.

If that test is not met, the domicile and 183-day tests can still make you resident. The factors are listed on the ATO's Your tax residency page.

New Zealand may still think you live there

Inland Revenue runs its own test. You stop being a New Zealand tax resident only when you have no permanent place of abode in New Zealand and you have been away for more than 325 days in a 12-month period. Once both are true, the change is backdated to the day you left.

The permanent place of abode test overrides the day count. Inland Revenue's position is that a rental property on its own does not keep you resident, but a house kept available for you can, and your wider ties are weighed either way. If both countries treat you as resident for the same stretch of time, the tax treaty between Australia and New Zealand, in force since 19 March 2010, has tie-breaker rules that decide which country you are resident in for the treaty. Settle this before either country's first return is lodged.

The temporary resident question

A New Zealander on a special category visa is a temporary resident for Australian tax if neither they nor their spouse is an Australian resident under the Social Security Act 1991. That means neither of you is an Australian citizen, permanent resident or protected special category visa holder. A Kiwi couple arriving together on New Zealand passports will usually both be temporary residents.

Going home for Christmas does not break it. The ATO's view in TD 2012/18 is that you still hold a temporary visa for this purpose while you are away, because your passport gives you a continuing right to come back in.

The status does end if you become an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or if your spouse is one. It also ends for good: once you have been an Australian resident without being a temporary resident, you cannot become a temporary resident again, even on a later temporary visa.

What you declare in Australia

As an Australian resident who is also a temporary resident, you declare income you earn in Australia, capital gains on taxable Australian property such as real estate here, and in some cases pay for work done overseas while you are a temporary resident. Other foreign income and foreign capital gains stay out of your Australian return. Interest on a Kiwi savings account, rent from a house you kept in New Zealand, or the gain when you sell that house would not usually be declared here.

Without temporary resident status, you declare your worldwide income from the day you become resident. New Zealand rent, interest, dividends and business profit go into your Australian return converted to Australian dollars, with the related deductions and tax converted the same way.

When you become resident and are not a temporary resident, assets you already own are treated as bought at market value on that day. The reset does not apply to taxable Australian property, such as real estate here, which keeps its normal cost base, or to assets acquired before CGT began on 20 September 1985. If you lose temporary resident status later while staying here, the same reset happens on that later date. A valuation of your New Zealand shares, funds and property at the right date saves an argument years later.

Claiming New Zealand tax against Australian tax

Where New Zealand income does go into your Australian return, the New Zealand tax on it comes back as a foreign income tax offset. You must have paid the tax, or be treated as having paid it, and the income must be in your Australian assessable income. The offset comes off your Australian income tax first, then the Medicare levy, then any Medicare levy surcharge. If the foreign tax is $1,000 or less you claim what you paid; above that you have to work out an offset limit.

New Zealand's tax year ends on 31 March and Australia's on 30 June, so figures from a New Zealand return have to be split across two Australian years.

The part-year tax-free threshold

The full tax-free threshold of $18,200 is for people resident for the whole year. In the year you arrive you get a flat $13,464, plus $4,736 apportioned for the months you are resident, counting the month you arrive through to June.

Medicare levy

Australian residents for tax pay the Medicare levy, 2% of taxable income, with reductions at low incomes. New Zealand citizens can enrol in Medicare by showing they will live here for six months or more, or have lived here that long in the past 12 months, so for most people the levy applies from the start.

Being a temporary resident for tax does not exempt you from it. The exemption for people not entitled to Medicare benefits needs a Medicare Entitlement Statement from Services Australia, and it fails if your spouse or a dependant was entitled.

Telling Inland Revenue

Inland Revenue's leaving New Zealand guidance asks you to finalise your position once your residency changes. If you had more than $200 of income that was not taxed at source, such as rent or self-employment, you file an IR3 showing income from 1 April to the day you left. If everything was already taxed, you can ask for an income tax assessment instead.

Tell your New Zealand bank and any share registry that you are non-resident, so non-resident withholding tax is deducted at the right rate, and change the prescribed investor rate on any PIE fund to 28%. Student loans, KiwiSaver, Working for Families and child support each have their own rules and need updating separately. Inland Revenue also notes that the ATO can help it recover tax debt from New Zealanders living in Australia, so a balance left behind can follow you here.

Student loans run on a separate count. If you are in New Zealand for fewer than 32 days in a 184-day period you become overseas-based, interest is charged from the day after you left, and repayments are set by your balance rather than your income.

Your first Australian return

The Australian income year runs from 1 July to 30 June. If you arrive during 2026–27, your first return covers your arrival to 30 June 2027. It asks whether you were an Australian resident and from when, and that date sets your threshold. You can lodge it yourself by 31 October 2027. A registered tax agent can usually lodge later under their lodgment program, provided you engage them before that 31 October date.

A first-year checklist

• Apply for a tax file number online once you are here, and give it to your employer.
• Keep evidence of the day you arrived and settled, such as the flight, lease and job start date.
• Work out whether you are a temporary resident, and note why, including your partner's citizenship or visa.
• If you are not a temporary resident, get market values for New Zealand shares, funds and property as at the date you became resident.
• Enrol in Medicare.
• Once you are non-resident in New Zealand, tell Inland Revenue, your bank and any PIE provider, and check your student loan under the 32-day rule.
• Before moving any retirement savings, read KiwiSaver and Australian super.

This is general information, not advice for your situation. Residency and temporary resident status turn on facts only you can supply, and the answer changes what goes into both returns. When your first Australian year ends, the tax return questionnaire collects what we need, or get in touch first if you are unsure where you stand.