# Working remotely for US company in Australia



## ozbound12 (Mar 23, 2012)

I'm currently applying for a 176 visa which, with any luck, will be granted soon and am hoping to move to Australia sometime in the fall. The company I work for here in the States has said that I can work remotely for the firm while I'm in Australia. Does anyone have any experience working remotely for US firms? What are the tax implications for this sort of arrangement? I figure that on the US side I would file my returns as usual, but it's not clear to me what the implications are on the Australian side.

Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated!


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## prajwalkashyap (Jan 5, 2012)

Make sure u get paid into a local bank account in Australia and not to a bank account in USA. Else you'll get double taxed.

P


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## forlorn79 (Jun 10, 2011)

prajwalkashyap said:


> Make sure u get paid into a local bank account in Australia and not to a bank account in USA. Else you'll get double taxed.
> 
> P


Shouldnt it be better to a US bank instead because it shows he is not earning income in australia


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## cic (Jun 2, 2011)

no worry 
u have to pay tax either in australia or USA as the countries have treaty between them


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## prajwalkashyap (Jan 5, 2012)

forlorn79 said:


> Shouldnt it be better to a US bank instead because it shows he is not earning income in australia


That's the point. U need to show that you are working and that you are not idling around. You will need funds to live about. When you transfer the money from the US account to your Aussie account, questions can be asked about where you are getting the money from. Govts are not usually comfortable on international money transfers. If you show the credit of the money is from your employer, then its a lot more easy to explain. If you are transferring between your own accounts, you'll first get taxed for your salary in USA, and a long explanation for transferring to your Aussie account. Besides, if the money is income, then its taxed. You'll get taxed for any income, domestic or international. 

So the double tax issue. Else, there might be a way of using the labour agreement (which I know is there) where the issue of double taxation is addressed. But I am not aware of how to make use of that because it is a treaty at the govt levels between Australia and USA.

P


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## ozbound12 (Mar 23, 2012)

My understanding is that the US and Australia have a tax treaty which aims to reduce/eliminate double taxation. 

This is something I found just from random Google searching: ATO ID 2003/1195 - Assessability of employment income received by a dual resident of Australia and the United States

Essentially it states that the income derived from overseas for work done for an overseas firm is not assessable by Australia, if the individual is a resident of both the US and Australia for tax purposes. Does this sound right?


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## stormgal (Sep 30, 2009)

there's a person by the name of Marilyn in the "Yanks Down Under" forum who's an accountant and who can explain all of that very well if you're interested. In fact, they have a whole forum on taxes.  
I normally wouldn't post about other forums, so please forgive me for doing so, but the tax thing is a major one for us.


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## ozbound12 (Mar 23, 2012)

Thanks so much, stormgal!!


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