Guides
The ten things that actually decide your exit
Most of what’s written about leaving Australia is either visa marketing or scare content. These ten guides are neither. Each one takes a single question the ATO will actually contest, does your residency really end, what does leaving itself cost, what happens to the house, the debt, the super, the company, and explains the law in plain English, with the case names, the worked numbers, and the traps that catch real people. Each guide embeds the tool that runs the same question against your numbers, because a guide can tell you how deemed disposal works but only a calculator can tell you what yours costs.
The four residency tests, explained properly
What the resides, domicile, 183-day and Commonwealth super tests actually weigh, and what Harding and Pike teach.
Deemed disposal: the tax bill for leaving itself
CGT event I1 taxes your shares and crypto the day you leave, no sale, no proceeds, real money. Pay now or defer, both cost something.
The main residence exemption trap
Sell your former home while non-resident and the exemption vanishes for the entire ownership period, the single most expensive timing mistake departing Australians make.
HECS doesn’t stay behind
The 7-day notification, worldwide income reporting, and what your debt quietly does while you pretend it isn’t there.
Super and SMSFs: the money that can’t leave
Why leaving doesn’t unlock super, why DASP isn’t for citizens, and the SMSF residency failure that turns concessional tax into 45%.
Franking credits die at the border
The refund machine that makes Australian dividends special stops the day you cease residency. Here’s the arithmetic on a $50k stream.
Your company doesn’t automatically move with you
Central management and control follows the person making decisions. If that’s you, your Pty Ltd has a problem, and a trust is worse.
Treaty tie-breakers: when both countries claim you
The Article 4 cascade step by step, what a treaty actually protects, and the blunt problem with the countries that don’t have one.
Evidence and audits: proving you left
Residency disputes arrive two to four years later, built on data you didn’t know the ATO had. The file you build now decides them.
Coming back: the return is a planning event too
The cost-base reset, the deferred-election exception, health cover loading, and the sequence that protects years of savings.
Prefer to start with numbers instead of words? The 33 tools cover the same ground interactively, and the Residency Risk Quiz is the usual first step.