If you worked in Australia on a 417 or 462 visa, you need to lodge a working holiday visa tax return after 30 June to reconcile the tax your employers withheld against the 15% rate that actually applies to your first $45,000 of income.1Australian Taxation Office. Tax Rates Working Holiday Maker Most backpackers end up with a refund, and the reason is simple: if your employer was not registered with the ATO as a working holiday maker employer, they were legally required to withhold at 30% from the first dollar.2Australian Taxation Office. Working Holiday Makers Lodging the return is how you get that difference back, along with any deductions and the Medicare levy exemption you’re entitled to.
What You Get Back and Why
Working holiday makers pay a flat 15% on income up to $45,000. You don’t get the $18,200 tax-free threshold that Australian residents receive, but 15% is lower than the 30% foreign resident rate.3Australian Taxation Office. Tax Rates – Foreign Resident
Here’s where refunds come from. Every employer who hires WHMs is supposed to register with the ATO. If they did, they withheld 15% and your return will roughly balance out. If they didn’t, they were required to withhold at the 30% foreign resident rate, meaning you were significantly overtaxed all year.2Australian Taxation Office. Working Holiday Makers Lodging the return, and selecting WHM status when you do, tells the ATO to recalculate your liability at 15% and refund the excess. Skipping your return in this situation means leaving that money with the government.
The Deadline
If you lodge your own return, it’s due by 31 October following the end of the financial year on 30 June.4Australian Taxation Office. Income Tax Return Registered tax agents have extended deadlines, but you have to be enrolled with one before 31 October to use that extension.
Missing the deadline triggers a failure-to-lodge penalty of one penalty unit per 28-day period the return is overdue, capped at five units.5Australian Taxation Office. Failure to Lodge on Time Penalty An outstanding ATO debt can also complicate future Australian visa applications.
You can lodge from anywhere in the world through myTax. Leaving Australia doesn’t remove the obligation. If you leave part-way through the year and earned income before departing, you still need to file for that partial year.
What to Have Ready Before You Start
Pull these together before you sit down to lodge:
- Your Tax File Number, the nine-digit number issued when you first registered with the ATO. Backpackers who never applied can do it free through the ATO’s online application for visa holders with work rights.6Australian Taxation Office. Apply for a TFN
- Income statements from every employer. These are uploaded directly to the ATO and appear in myGov by mid-to-late July. Check the totals against your payslips, especially if you had multiple jobs.
- Bank interest records. Interest earned on an Australian account counts as income.
- Receipts for any work-related expenses you plan to claim.
- A Medicare Entitlement Statement from Services Australia.
- A myGov account linked to the ATO. This is how you reach myTax.
Wait until your employer’s income statement shows “tax ready” in myGov. Filing against a “not tax ready” figure creates problems if the number changes.
Claim the Medicare Levy Exemption
Australia charges a 2% Medicare levy on taxable income to fund public healthcare.7Australian Taxation Office. What Is the Medicare Levy Most working holiday makers aren’t entitled to Medicare, which means the levy shouldn’t apply to you. On $30,000 of income that’s $600 you’d otherwise pay unnecessarily.
To claim the exemption you need a Medicare Entitlement Statement from Services Australia confirming your ineligibility. Apply online through myGov, or download the MS015 form.8Services Australia. Application for a Medicare Entitlement Statement Form (MS015) Applications open from 1 July for the income year that just ended.9Services Australia. How to Get a Medicare Entitlement Statement Get the statement before you lodge, because myTax asks for it when you claim the exemption.
Deductions Worth Claiming
Deductions come off your taxable income before tax is calculated, so every dollar claimed directly reduces your bill or grows your refund. The general rule: if you spent money to earn your income and your employer didn’t reimburse you, it’s likely deductible.
The categories that matter most for backpackers:
- Protective clothing and uniforms. Steel-capped boots, high-visibility vests, sun protection for outdoor farm work, occupation-specific uniforms. Laundry expenses for eligible work clothing can be claimed up to $150 without written evidence, provided you keep a record of what you washed and how you worked out the figure.10Australian Taxation Office. D3 Work Clothing, Laundry and Dry-Cleaning Expenses 2025
- Travel between workplaces on the same day, or from your regular workplace to an alternative work location. Travel from home to your regular workplace is not deductible.11Australian Taxation Office. Trips You Can and Can’t Claim
- Tools and equipment bought for work, such as a knife roll for a hospitality job or tools for construction. Items costing $300 or less can be claimed in full immediately.
- The work-related portion of phone and internet costs if you used your personal service for the job.
Keep every receipt, physical or digital. The ATO is far more likely to question deductions without documentation, and bank statements alone are generally not enough evidence.
Lodging Through myTax
Most working holiday makers lodge through myTax, the ATO’s free online tool inside myGov. It pre-fills income and bank interest data from what employers and banks have already reported.
The step that matters most is the WHM adjustment. At the “Personalise return” stage, tick “Working holiday maker net income” under tax offsets and adjustments. When you reach that section, select your home country and confirm whether all your income relates to work performed on a 417 or 462 visa. If you also earned income on another visa, or after your WHM visa ended, you’ll need to separate the amounts.12Australian Taxation Office. myTax 2025 Working Holiday Maker Net Income Miss this step and the system won’t apply the WHM rates correctly.
The ATO aims to process most electronic returns within 12 business days.13Australian Taxation Office. After You Lodge When it’s done you’ll receive a Notice of Assessment showing whether you owe money or are due a refund. Refunds go to the Australian bank account you nominate. If you’ve already closed your account, sort out an alternative before you lodge.
If You’re from a Tax Treaty Country
Nationals of eight countries may be taxed at standard resident rates rather than WHM rates, if they qualify as Australian residents for tax purposes. This comes from the 2020 High Court decision in Addy v Commissioner of Taxation, which held that applying the higher WHM rates to residents from countries with a non-discrimination article in their tax treaty breached those treaty obligations.14Australian Taxation Office. Addy v Commissioner of Taxation
The eight countries are Chile, Finland, Germany, Israel, Japan, Norway, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Hold a passport from one of these and qualify as an Australian resident for tax purposes, and you get the $18,200 tax-free threshold and may qualify for the low income tax offset.15Australian Taxation Office. Taxation of Australian Resident WHMs from NDA Countries On $25,000 of income the difference is worth several thousand dollars.
The catch is the residency test. Being physically present isn’t enough. The most common test is the 183-day test: present in Australia for more than half the income year, with your usual home not overseas.16Australian Taxation Office. Residency – the 183-Day Test If you’re not from one of the eight countries listed, WHM rates apply regardless of how long you stayed.
Fixing a Mistake After You’ve Lodged
If you notice an error after filing, wait until the original return has finished processing, then request an amendment through myGov by selecting “Amend” next to the relevant income year. Online amendments take around 20 business days; paper requests can take up to 50.17Australian Taxation Office. How to Request an Amendment to Your Tax Return
Common reasons for a backpacker amendment: forgetting to claim the Medicare levy exemption, missing a deduction, or an employer uploading a corrected income statement after you’d already filed. Amendments have time limits, so don’t assume you can come back years later.
Don’t Forget Your Superannuation
Every Australian employer pays superannuation on top of your wages, at 12% of ordinary earnings for the 2025–26 year.18Australian Taxation Office. Super Guarantee Super doesn’t appear on your tax return, but as a temporary resident you can claim it back after you leave through a Departing Australia Superannuation Payment.19Australian Taxation Office. Departing Australia Superannuation Payment (DASP)
You apply through the ATO after your visa has expired or been cancelled and you’ve left the country. The payment is taxed at higher rates because of the WHM visa class, so expect noticeably less than the full balance. It’s still money that would otherwise sit in an Australian fund indefinitely. The DASP is separate from your tax return, so lodge your return, receive your refund, then apply for the DASP once you’ve departed.
US Citizens Have a Second Return to File
If you hold a US passport, Australia isn’t your only tax obligation. The United States taxes citizens on worldwide income regardless of where they live or work. If your total income exceeds the standard deduction for your filing status, you must file a US federal return reporting your Australian earnings. For a single filer in the 2025 tax year (filed in 2026), that threshold is $15,350.
The foreign earned income exclusion lets you exclude up to $132,900 of foreign wages from US taxation for 2026, so most backpackers won’t owe US tax on their Australian pay.20Internal Revenue Service. Figuring the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion To qualify, you have to meet either the bona fide residence test or the physical presence test (330 full days outside the US in a 12-month period). The alternative is a foreign tax credit through Form 1116, which offsets US tax by the Australian tax you already paid.21Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 1116 You can’t use the exclusion and the credit on the same income.
The obligation to file exists even if you owe nothing after applying the exclusion. Failing to lodge can trigger penalties and makes claiming the exclusion harder in later years.