People can be ‘dual residents’ for tax purposes, but where Australia has a ‘tax treaty’ with the foreign country in question, the question of ‘duality’ is essentially eliminated via a ‘treaty tie-breaker’ which is a test or rule that determines tax residency will be in one jurisdiction or the other, but not both. This means, that the person can’t actually be a tax resident of two countries. (The ‘tie-breaker’ will make them one or the other). So long as SelfWealth doesn’t give applicants a choice in the application process to nominate ‘dual’ then it shouldn’t be a problem.
There are 2 main criteria to determine if you are an Australian resident for tax purposes:
- You reside in Australia a continuously for a minimum of 183 days (6 months) in one location and / or
- You are studying and living in Australia continuously for a minimum of 183 days (6 months)
To be 100% confident of your residency status, complete the decision tool which is available on the ATO website. The link to the tool has been provided below