Study Loan or HECS
Did you know if you have a study or training support loan like
- Higher Education Loan Program (HELP – formerly known as HECS)
- VET Student Loan (VSL)
- Trade Support Loan (TSL).
And If you plan to live and work overseas, you are required to:
- Update your contact details and submit an overseas travel notification within seven days of leaving Australia.
This is if you have an intention to (or already) reside overseas for 183 days or more in any 12 months
- Lodge your worldwide income or a non-lodgment advice.
You can report your worldwide income online by accessing ATO online services through myGov, or through an Australian registered tax agent like us.
The deadline for you to report for the Australian income year (1 July to 30 June) is 31 October. It’s important you lodge on time, even if you can’t pay straight away, to avoid a penalty for lodging late.
If you use an Australian registered tax agent like us to lodge on your behalf, we still can lodge it after the usual 31 October deadline.
The due date will depend on your personal circumstance. You should contact us for advice using the contact methods below.
After you have reported your worldwide income, you will receive a notice confirming:
- How much you owe or will be refunded
- The due date for payment.
Your student or training loan will continue to be indexed each year until it is paid.
You can make additional voluntary repayments from overseas at any time to reduce the balance.
These will not reduce any compulsory repayment or overseas levy obligations you may have.
Completing an overseas travel notification
You need to notify the ATO, within seven days of leaving Australia, if you intend to move or already reside overseas for 183 days or more in any 12-month period.
We can help you to submit your overseas travel notification. The information we required are
- Your Australian or foreign passport
- Your travel information including:
- The country you are planning to reside in while overseas
- Your expected or actual departure date from Australia
- Your expected or actual date of return to Australia.
You must continue to update your contact details as long as you reside overseas through us as your Registered Tax Agent.
You will only need to lodge a subsequent overseas travel notification if you come back to Australia, or your residency changes and you meet the requirements to notify again.
You do not need to complete another notification if you are only returning to Australia for a short period (for example, a holiday).
Reporting your worldwide income
Your worldwide income is your repayment income and your non-resident foreign sourced income.
Your non-resident foreign sourced income is any income you earned from sources outside of Australia while you were a non-resident.
To determine the next steps in reporting your worldwide income, you will first need to work out if you are an:
- Australian resident
If you reside outside Australia for less than 183 days in any 12-month period the below table applies to you.
- Non-resident
If you reside outside Australia for 183 days or more in any 12-month period the below table applies to you.
If you have a HELP, TSL or VSL loan and are a non-resident (full or part year)
You need to lodge a non-lodgment advice form.
Note: If you have a study or training loan, you will have an ongoing obligation to report your worldwide income, or lodge a non-lodgment advice.
Note: When declaring your foreign sourced income earned as a non-resident you will have the option of choosing between one of three assessment methods.
Assessment methods
When you declare your worldwide income to us, you may choose one of the following three income assessment methods to calculate your non-resident foreign sourced income.
You can only choose one method to assess your foreign income for the income year.
However, you may choose another assessment method in a later year.
- Simple self-assessment method
- Overseas assessed method
- Comprehensive tax-based assessment method
Simple self-assessment method
This method requires you to provide your gross amount of non-resident foreign income for the income year and state the occupation from which you derived most of your foreign- sourced income.
A standard deduction will automatically be applied to reduce your foreign income based on your occupation.
Depending on your personal circumstances, you may wish to use a different assessment method to determine the non-resident foreign-sourced income component of your worldwide income.
For example, if you have deductions that would be allowable under Australian tax laws.
Overseas assessed method
This method allows you to enter the foreign income amount you were assessed for on your most recent income assessment from your foreign country of residence.
The assessment must cover a 12-month period, even if you did not earn income for the whole 12 months.
There are limitations to using this method. You cannot use this method if:
- You did not receive a tax assessment from a foreign tax authority
- You received a tax assessment that does not cover a 12-month period
- The period of the assessment does not overlap the relevant Australian income year (1 July to 30 June)
- You received multiple assessments for the income year from tax authorities of different foreign countries
- You have previously used that income assessment to calculate your foreign income.
Comprehensive tax-based assessment method
This method will require you to declare your gross foreign income and enter allowable deductions, similar to how you would complete an Australian income tax return.
You must provide the gross amount (pre-tax amount) of your foreign income. You must do this even if tax was taken out in the country where you earned the income.
How to report your worldwide income
If your worldwide income (converted into Australian dollars) exceeds the minimum repayment thresholds, you will be required to make a repayment of your study or training loan liability.
Repayments may be in the form of a compulsory repayment or an overseas levy depending on how your worldwide income is made up.
Information you need to report
To assist in determining your worldwide income, you may need to refer to notices or statements you have received in your country of residence, or country you earned worldwide income.
These may include, but are not limited to:
- Tax assessment or summary from a foreign tax authority (for example, those issued from HMRC, IRS, National Tax Agency)
- Payment summaries or income statements, or payment slips from employers
- Bank statements
- Notices showing amount of government benefits received
- Dividend and interest certificates
- Rental income statements
- Receipts to claim deductions for expenses incurred in earning non-resident foreign sourced income, for example, work-related expenses you incurred while performing your job as an employee.
Completing a non-lodgment advice
If you did not earn more than 25% of the minimum repayment threshold for the income year you will need to submit a non-lodgment advice.
A non-lodgment advice is a document lodged instead of a tax return. This document tells the Australian Tax Office (ATO) that you will not be lodging a return as you:
- Are not above 25% of the minimum repayment threshold
- Have made a determination that you have no requirement to report your worldwide income which includes lodging an individual tax return.
Note: If you had previously submitted a non-lodgment advice and your situation have changed, you are still able to report your worldwide income.