Overseas forces tax offset

Check if you are eligible for a tax offset for serving overseas as a member of a force.

Published 15 June 2025

Claiming the overseas forces tax offset

You may be eligible for an overseas forces tax offset if:

you are a member of either
- the Australian Defence Force
- a United Nations armed force
you serve in a specified overseas locality
your income relating to that service is not specifically exempt from tax.

If your income was exempt foreign employment income, exclude these periods when working out your eligibility for the tax offset.

To claim the full tax offset, you must have served in an overseas locality for 183 days or more in the income year. If your overseas service was less than 183 days, you may be able to claim part of the tax offset. Unlike the zone tax offset, you can't carry forward any unused days from previous years to make up 183 days.

Specified overseas localities

Table 1 below lists the current specified overseas localities. If you served in any of these localities as a member of the Australian Defence Force or United Nations armed force during the last income year, you may qualify for an overseas forces tax offset.

Table 1: Current specified overseas localities
Date the area became a specified locality	Date the area will cease to be a specified locality	Description of the specified locality
26 October 2011	–	The Republic of South Sudan and Uganda including superjacent airspace.
20 July 2006	–	Area comprising Lebanon and its territorial waters and superjacent airspace.
12 May 2006	–	Area comprising East Timor and its territorial waters and superjacent airspace.
28 October 2005	–	Area comprising the land, sea and air areas bounded by the internationally recognised borders of Pakistan.
10 April 2005	–	Sudan and its territorial waters and superjacent airspace.
24 July 2003	–	Total land areas, territorial waters and superjacent airspace boundaries of the Solomon Islands.
21 April 2003	–	Total land area, territorial waters and superjacent airspace within the internationally recognised boundaries of Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt.
11 June 1999	–	Area comprising the political boundaries and airspace of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including the province of Kosovo), Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
28 October 1992	–	The Sinai.

Former specified overseas localities

Table 2 below lists the specified overseas localities that are no longer current. You may be able to claim the overseas forces tax offset in the income year you served there.

When working this out, if you were in the area on the date the area:

became a specified locality, include that day in your calculation
ceased to be a specified locality, exclude that day from the calculation.

Table 2: Former specified overseas localities
Date the area became a specified locality	Date the area ceased to be a specified locality	Description of the specified locality
1 July 2014	30 June 2015	For service with Operation OKRA, the land territory, territorial waters, airspace and superjacent airspace of the: State of Kuwait Kingdom of Bahrain United Arab Emirates State of Qatar Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
1 July 2014	30 June 2015	For service with Operation OKRA, the waters, airspace and superjacent airspace of the Persian Gulf. (Also known as the Arabian Gulf.)
1 July 2014	31 December 2014	For service with Operation Accordion, the land territory, internal waters, airspace and superjacent airspace of: the Kingdom of Bahrain the State of Qatar the United Arab Emirates.
1 July 2014	30 June 2015	For service with Operation Manitou, the sea (including adjacent ports and the area within a 10 km radius of such ports) and superjacent airspace of the: Arabian Sea, north of latitude 12 degrees South and west of longitude 68 degrees east Persian Gulf Strait of Hormuz Gulf of Oman Gulf of Aden Red Sea.
31 March 2011	1 November 2011	International waters and superjacent airspace of the Central Southern Mediterranean Sea: between 10 00' E and 28 00' E and south of 41 00' N including portions of Italy, Greece, Turkey, Albania and all of Malta and north of Libya, and its territorial waters and superjacent airspace.
20 May 2004	18 August 2009	East Timor and the territorial sea of East Timor.
18 August 2003	18 August 2009	Total land area, territorial waters and superjacent airspace of East Timor.
15 January 2001	18 August 2009	Area of operations defined as comprising Ethiopia and Eritrea.
4 November 2000	18 August 2009	Area of operations defined as comprising the Solomon Islands and its territorial sea.
19 June 1999	18 August 2009	Area comprising East Timor and the territorial sea of Indonesia adjacent to East Timor.
12 July 1994	18 August 2009	Mozambique.
7 July 1994	18 August 2009	Cambodia.
7 May 1991	18 August 2009	The waters of the: Arabian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Northern Arabian Sea, the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea bounded to the south and east by the following coordinates 25 00' N – 61 50' E 20 00' N – 61 50' E 11 50' N – 51 17' E.
1 July 1970	18 August 2009	The areas in: Syria, the Arab Republic of Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Israel, including territories occupied by Israel, in which Australian personnel served with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation.
16 September 1963	18 August 2009	Malaysia and its contiguous waters for a distance of 100 nautical miles seaward.
26 December 2004	27 May 2005	Area comprising of the land, sea and air areas bounded by the following geographical points: 7 deg north 94 deg east 7 deg north 108 deg east 7 deg south 94 deg east 7 deg south 108 deg east.
20 November 1997	27 August 2003	Area comprising Bougainville, Buka Islands and the Papua New Guinea territorial waters surrounding those islands.
15 January 2001	28 February 2003	The specified area comprises Sierra Leone.
1 October 1999	12 January 2003	Area of operations comprising the political borders of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
13 May 1999	12 January 2003	Area of operations comprising the political borders of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
15 May 1999	19 October 2001	The sea area: comprising the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the northern Arabian Sea bounded by 61 degrees 50 minutes east longitude and 20 degrees north latitude together with the ports contiguous to that sea area and the airfields and military facilities adjacent to those ports.
–	1 October 2001	Area of operations all sea, airspace and land North and West from 5 deg 00 min S 68 deg 00 min E and encompassing the outer boundaries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Sudan and Kenya.
8 June 2000	25 June 2000	Area of operations defined as comprising: the island of Guadalcanal and the adjacent waters extending 12 nautical miles (including the superjacent airspace) from the shoreline of the island of Guadalcanal.
–	5 October 1999	Area of operations comprising Cambodia and the areas in Laos and Thailand that are not more than 50 kms from the border with Cambodia.
6 September 1999	20 September 1999	Area comprising East Timor and the territorial sea of Indonesia adjacent to East Timor.
25 February 1999	11 June 1999	Area comprising the political boundaries and airspace of: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including the province of Kosovo) Albania the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
15 April 1999	4 June 1999	Area comprising the political boundaries and airspace of: the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (including the province of Kosovo) Albania the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia the air bases in Italy used for this operation the Adriatic Sea.
13 February 1997	13 May 1997	Guatemala.
–	1 July 1996	Haiti.
–	21 February 1995	Rwanda and the areas of Uganda, Zaire, Burundi and Tanzania that are not more than 50 kms from the border with Rwanda.
21 September 1994	13 November 1994	Bougainville, the Buka Islands and the Papua New Guinea territorial waters surrounding those islands.
–	1 August 1994	The countries of: Bahrain Iraq Kuwait Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates Turkey, south of latitude 38 north Western Sahara.
–	1 January 1994	The North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
8 October 1993	21 November 1993	Cambodia.
–	1 January 1991	The area in which Australian Defence Force members are serving with the United Nations Iran or Iraq Military Observer Group: on the Iran side of the internationally recognised border between Iran and Iraq being an area within 200 kms of that border.
–	1 February 1990	The areas in Uganda in which Australian military personnel served with the Australian Contingent Commonwealth Military Training Team.
–	1 February 1990	The areas in Sinai in which Australian military personnel served with the Multi-National Force and Observers (MFO).
–	1 February 1990	The areas in India and Pakistan in which Australian personnel served with the United Nations Military Observer Group, India and Pakistan.
–	1 February 1990	Indonesia.
–	1 February 1990	Vietnam (southern zone) and the waters contiguous to the coast of Vietnam for a distance of 100 nautical miles seaward.
–	1 February 1990	Thailand.
–	1 February 1990	The waters contiguous to the coast of Singapore for a distance of 100 nautical miles seaward.
–	1 February 1990	Brunei and the waters contiguous to Brunei for a distance of 100 nautical miles seaward.

Calculate and claim the overseas forces tax offset

You need to calculate the tax offset and claim the amount in your tax return at Zone or overseas forces.

You can only claim one of these tax offsets. If you qualify for both, you can claim the one that gives you the greater offset amount.

Use the calculator to work out your eligibility for a tax offset and the amount to claim.

Zone or overseas forces tax offset calculator

QC105019

Overseas forces tax offset

Claiming the overseas forces tax offset

Specified overseas localities

Former specified overseas localities

Calculate and claim the overseas forces tax offset

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