Do I have to file at home while living in Australia?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and Australia?
Treaty networks change with each protocol and each multilateral-instrument position, so we confirm the treaty in force for your specific year with the issuing authority rather than relying on a published summary. Where there is none, unilateral relief and domestic law do the work instead.
I own property in Australia. Where is the rent taxed?
Rent from immovable property is almost always taxable where the property is situated, frequently by withholding on the gross amount, with your home country taxing the same income and giving credit. A net-basis election, where one exists, is usually the difference between tax on profit and tax on turnover.
Do I pay tax at home when I sell my Australian house?
If you are resident at home, yes: the gain goes on your home return wherever the property sits, with credit for the Australian tax on the same gain. If you are not resident at home, the gain usually belongs to Australia alone, although a departure computation may already have fixed a value for the property when you left. The complication is timing. The two countries close their tax years at different points, so a gain can fall into one year in Australia and a different one at home, which affects when the credit can be claimed.
Why is tax withheld from my sale price and not my gain?
Because withholding on a disposal by someone treated as a foreign resident is normally calculated on the proceeds rather than on the profit. The purchaser or their solicitor deducts it at settlement and remits it, and because the base is the whole price it routinely exceeds the tax actually due — sometimes by a wide margin, and occasionally where there is no gain at all. The excess is not lost. It is recovered by filing the return for the year and setting the amount withheld against the assessed liability. Where residency status can be confirmed before settlement, the deduction can often be avoided altogether.
My sale settles after the Australian year ends — which year reports it?
Australia generally looks to the date the contract becomes binding rather than to settlement, so a sale contracted in one Australian year and settled in the next can sit in the earlier year. Your home country applies its own rule, often tied to the transfer or to receipt. The two can therefore place the same gain in different years. That does not create extra tax, but it does create a timing problem for the credit, because relief may be claimable in a year other than the one the foreign tax appears in. We identify both dates at the outset.
Can I still treat my old home as exempt after moving to Australia?
Treat it as an open question rather than an assumption. Each country has its own rules for a main residence and they do not define the exempt period the same way, so a property exempt in one place can be partly taxable in the other. Periods of non-residence, and periods when the property was let, are usually where an exemption narrows. What helps is a documented history: when you lived there, when it was let, what it cost, and what it was worth at the points where your residence changed. That history decides the answer and cannot be reconstructed reliably later.
What records should I keep when buying property in Australia?
Everything that establishes the cost and the ownership, because the sale is where it all gets used. That means the contract, the settlement statement, the duty paid, legal and agent costs, and the exchange rate at the date of acquisition with its source recorded. Keep the funding trail as well — who paid what, and from which account — since that is what supports how the property is split between owners. If you improve it, keep those invoices separately from repairs. A file built at purchase costs an hour; the same file reconstructed at sale costs far more and is often incomplete.
We bought jointly — how is the gain divided between us?
By the interests actually held, which usually follow the title and the funding rather than whatever split is convenient. If title is held in equal shares, the starting point is an equal division of both rent and gain, and a different split needs something behind it: a trust arrangement, or evidence of who really provided the money. Each country then applies its own rules to that owner's share, which can mean the same sale is reported differently on two returns. The time to settle the split is at purchase, in writing, not when the contract for sale is signed.
What is FIRPTA withholding?
FIRPTA is the US regime that treats a foreign person's disposition of a US real property interest as taxable and makes the buyer withhold on the gross proceeds to secure it. Because the deduction is on the price rather than the profit, it routinely exceeds the real tax — sometimes on a sale made at a loss. A withholding certificate applied for before closing can reduce it to something closer to the actual liability. See the FIRPTA withholding certificate.
What happens when a non-resident sells Canadian property?
The buyer or their solicitor is obliged to withhold on the purchase price unless you obtain a clearance certificate, so the practical work happens before closing rather than after. The certificate application reports the disposition and the gain and fixes the amount the authority requires to be held. Apply late and the withholding is computed on the gross price, tying up cash until a return recovers it. See the section 116 clearance certificate.
