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Edited version of your private ruling

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Ruling

Subject: Residency

Question and answer:

Are you a resident of Australia for income tax purposes?

No.

This ruling applies for the following periods

Year ended 30 June 2010

Year ended 30 June 2011

Year ended 30 June 2012

Year ended 30 June 2013

Year ended 30 June 2014

The scheme commences on

1 July 2009

Relevant facts and circumstances

Your country of origin is Australia and you are an Australian citizen.

You have been living and working overseas since late 2009.

Your family has been with you the entire time you have been overseas.

You have lived with your family in private accommodation, set up as part of your salary packaging, since you have been overseas.

You intend to continue working overseas for the foreseeable future.

You own a residential property in Australia which is currently being occupied by a relative; however, you are currently looking to rent out this property at commercial rates to a third party.

Since you have been working overseas you have visited Australia for periods of approximately 10 - 20 days on several occasions.

When visiting Australia you have mostly stayed in the house you own.

Neither you nor your spouse is employed by the Australian Commonwealth government.

Reasons for decision

Generally where you are a resident of Australia for taxation purposes, your assessable income includes income gained from all sources, whether in or out of Australia. However, where you are a foreign resident, your assessable income includes only income derived from an Australian source. 

 The terms 'resident' and 'resident of Australia', in regard to an individual, are defined within the tax provisions and provides four tests to ascertain the residency status.

Relevant to your situation are the first two tests which are examined in Taxation Ruling IT 2650 Income Tax: Residency - permanent place of abode outside Australia, a copy of which is available from www.ato.gov.au.

The resides test

Whether the individual resides in Australia according to the ordinary meaning of the word resides.

In your case, you have been working and living with your family overseas since late 2009. You have only returned to Australia for brief visits during this period.

Based on the above, you are not residing in Australia according to the ordinary meaning of the word and do not meet 'the resides' test. You are not a resident of Australia under this test.

The domicile test

Under this test, a person is a resident of Australia for income tax purposes if their domicile is in Australia, unless the Commissioner is satisfied that their permanent place of abode is outside of Australia.

Your domicile is Australia as your country of origin is Australia and you are an Australian citizen.

In your case, although you have a residence available to you in Australia, the Commissioner is satisfied that you have a permanent place of abode outside of Australia because:

Therefore, you are not a resident of Australia under this test.

Your residency status

You are not a resident of Australia for income tax purposes as you do not meet any of the tests of residency.

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